


He's Got It All Covered

by p_ogman



Series: KidLaw Fics [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - High School, Anorexia, Anosognosia, Crying, Donquixote "Corazon" Rosinante Lives, Donquixote Doflamingo Being an Asshole, Eating Disorders, Enemies to Lovers, Eustass Kid is a Little Shit, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Graphic Depictions of Illness, Hopeful Ending, Hugs, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Insomnia, M/M, Mentions of Cancer, Parent Donquixote "Corazon" Rosinante, Recovery, Self-Hatred, Slow Burn, Tired Trafalgar D. Water Law, Trafalgar D. Water Law-centric, side Killer/Penguin, so is law tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:47:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 40,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25152652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/p_ogman/pseuds/p_ogman
Summary: Law was a top student at his high school. He got straight As, a lot of good friends, and was going to go to med school. Yeah- He had it all under control. So why was Kid, his longtime might-just-be-more-than-a-rival, worrying so much?
Relationships: Eustass Kid/Trafalgar D. Water Law, Killer/Penguin (One Piece)
Series: KidLaw Fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1842727
Comments: 33
Kudos: 147





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just wanna say this is a vent fic essentially but I also missed writing for these characters so I got a little deep into it haha. This is in no way romanticizing mental illness, I just like writing dumb romance and wanted to vent as well so I multitasked. 
> 
> WARNING PLEASE READ: If you suffer from an eating disorder, please be careful, this fic contains graphic depictions of it and might not be for you. Thanks
> 
> anyways jesus christ a one piece fanfic in 2020??? and a KidLaw one at that??? im losing it

Kid hated Trafalgar Water D for Dumbfuckface Law with all of his hate.

The eighteen year old aspiring surgeon was a nuisance to Kid practically all of his life. They’ve been together since elementary school when Law snitched on Kid for stealing the dumb stuffed polar bear that was in Law’s backpack. Who even brings a stuffed animal to school? And why have one of a polar bear? It was all stupid to Kid. And it was even stupider when him and Law had a fight in the playground in middle school which caused Kid to get socked in the face and Law to have a black eye. Kid thinks he won the fight fair and square, but everyone called him a loser for punching a sick kid. Kid remembers the way Law’s adopted father Corazon yelled at him and his uncle Dofla-whatever his name was threatened to dismember him. Kid just remembers the way Law stared at him through his swollen eye as they all sat in those uncomfortable chairs in the principal's office though. Golden tired eyes looked at him as the principal droned on about consequences or whatever. All Kid saw was red as Law flipped him off out of sight of the adults.

But now those days of childhood are gone. They’re both in high school, and Kid has his own group of friends. Him and Law still talked in the first years. Law would flip him off in the hallways, causing Killer needing to hold Kid back as he yelled obscenities at the other. They sometimes talked during class, Kid making fun of the teachers while Law struggled to keep a straight face. He was always that straight A student who had it all planned for himself. That wasn’t Kid though. Kid didn’t know what the hell he wanted to do after high school. He liked to tinker with things. He knew how to fix cars and other machinery but he didn’t think there was a college degree for that. It all didn’t matter to him. All he wanted was to get out of high school as soon as possible.

Kid remembers seeing Law at a party during junior year. He was talking to Luffy, an idiot in one of the lower classes. Law was smiling at something Luffy said. Kid crushed the can he was holding in his hand at the sight. Whatever. Not like he cared whatever the hell Trafalgar decided to get himself into. Kid remembers leaving the room to get another drink, but he saw Killer macking all over one of Law’s good friends Penguin and had to leave the room before he gagged. Yeah, that party fucking sucked.

But now something was different between him and Law. Kid wasn’t sure what it was to be honest. It was their final year in that hellhole of a school, and yet the other seemed more glum than ever.

Yeah, Kid always knew Law was a depressed piece of shit. Even in elementary school he was quiet and looked like he saw death. Everyone always talked about how he was an orphan, or how he was supposed to die in a few years from the illness he had. But none of that ever stopped Law from being a snarky little shit. When Kid would push Law would oftentimes find a way to push back harder. They had always found some enjoyment in that.

So why didn’t Law flip him off when he passed him in the hallways? Why would Law not come over and bother Kid during lunch and cause the table to be in chaos like he used to do with a smug smirk on his face?

In fact, Kid didn’t even see Law in the lunchroom anymore. Yeah, he’ll admit it- He actually looked around at the other tables to see if he saw Law’s stupid white hat he wore a lot admist the crowds of kids eating their lunches. But he didn't see him anywhere. 

It was irritating, caring so much about just where the hell the other was. Kid shouldn't care at all, yet there he was tapping his plastic spork against the table. The table was pretty quiet besides Killer talking to Penguin. They had reached their first year anniversary a couple of days ago and if you asked Kid they just kept getting more and more annoying each passing day. Kid's eye twitches when he sees Penguin blush and tug at the flaps of his hat as Killer says something terribly cheesy to him.

"Ahem!- Can you fucking not?", Kid voices his disapproval. 

Killer rolls his eyes. "Just because you're jealous-" and Kid scoffs loudly. "Jealous of fucking what?- Your penguin boyfriend?"

"Don't talk shit about my wonderful penguin boyfriend- But no, I meant your little crush on Trafalgar Law-"

Kid choked on a piece of pizza he was eating and coughs, hitting his own chest dramatically just to empathise that he choked at the sheer audacity of the statement.

"Trafalgar Law?- Yeah nice one-"

"You have a crush on Law?", Penguin gasps and Kid groans. 

"No- No I do not, so don't go telling this to that creepy bastard.", Kid says as he stabs the spork into his tray.

"Don't listen to him. He's had a crush on Law since elementary school-", Killer says as if it's fact.

"Oh! You mean when they had that fight?", Penguin asks with a smile.

"Yeah, when he beat up a kid with cancer", Killer says. 

"Hey assholes I'm right here!- And kid with cancer or not he was a fucking asshole!", Kid defended. He shakes his head and says, "Which is why I didn't have a crush on him then and I don't have a crush on him now!" 

"This is so cute-", Penguin says with a smile. Kid gawks.

"Yeah pretty cute right? Too bad Kid's too much of a coward to go ask him out-", Killer says.

"I'm right fucking here!", Kid yells. He huffs and stands up with his tray. "Whatever, fuck you guys. I'm going to go smoke in the bathroom."

"I predict a 90% chance Kid has a crush on Law.", Hawkins says helpfully as he doesn't look up from his cards. Apoo laughs. "Hey make that a 100%!-"

Kid storms out after that. Whatever, they didn't know anything about him and Law anyways. It was all about pissing the other off between them. That's all it ever was.

Kid sighs and goes to the bathroom, pack of smokes already in his pocket as he opened the door to the men's bathroom on the second floor. There were no classes on this floor so hardly anyone used the bathroom there. He was already pulling one of the sticks out of the pack when he stopped at the sound of someone vomiting in one of the stalls.

Kid grimaced. Great. Now he needed to find a new place to smoke or wait for whatever idiot came to school sick to leave. He huffs and stays in place. This was his place god damn it. Just who the hell went to this bathroom anyways?

He looks in the mirror and pulls out his lipstick and reapplies it as he waits for the guy to hurry it up. They stopped puking after he came in. Kid wonders if they're too shy to finish puking now and snorts at the idea. He thinks about jeering the poor kid but decides against it. He just wants him to fucking hurry up.

He hears the sound of the toilet flushing and after a minute the stall reluctantly opens. Kid glances and double takes at who he sees.

"Law? That was you puking your guts out?", Kid says with a snort but stops smiling when he really sees the other.

Law's eyes are slightly red, like he had been crying and tried to wipe them too quickly. He was pale and was shaking slightly. Kid stilled. What the hell was he supposed to do.

"Jesus christ you look like shit Trafalgar- Go home early-", Kid says as he looks away from the shorter man. He looked back into the mirror and can see Law in the background pulling his hat out of his coat pocket and putting it back on. He was always wearing that new black coat of his instead of his annoying yellow hoodie these days.

"I'm fine Eustass-ya..", Law said as he replaced the grim look on his face with his trademark smirk. God Kid hated him.

"Strawhat-ya made me try something his brother made him for lunch.. I shouldn't have trusted it.", Law says smoothly as he goes over to the sink and washes his hands. His hands are still shaking slightly under the water.

"What the hell? Strawhat sharing food? Wow are you dying or something?", Kid says with a grin. Law doesn't laugh, but he keeps the slight smile on his face.

"You're right- He never shares food..Maybe I should be worried about him.", Law says with a hum.

"There's way too many things to worry about with that kid-", Kid says with a groan at the thought of Luffy and how many times he's annoyed Kid over the years.

Law laughs a bit this time and Kid blinks at the sound. "I guess you're right.."

He looks over at Law. The kid with cancer but not anymore. The one who would carry a stuffed bear around. The one who fought Kid and who flipped him off. The one who would proudly tell Kid how much of a piece of shit he was in front of all their friends.

Yeah that one- He didn't seem to be doing so well. He looked tired. Fuck when was the last time Kid even seen Law? Yeah they don't sit together in any classes but Kid could have stuck around a few times to see the other, just to really get under his skin and get a good laugh.

"Listen Trafalgar- Go home before I beat the shit out of you.", Kid says. Law snorts.

"There's only one class of the day left-", Law says and Kid rolls his eyes.

"I don't care, just go home."

"If I didn't know better I'd say you were worried about me Eustass-ya.", Law says and Kid curses. Not this shit again.

"No- I just know your friends will start shit if they knew I didn't do anything when I knew you were sick. You're always causing problems for me y'know that?-", Kid says as he takes a smoke out and lights it. He was pretty sure Law was over his snitching days.

"Yeah. I guess so..", Law says with a slight laugh. "But class is too important. Some of us care about school you know"

"Fine go die if I care. But y'know what? Dying in history class, that's fucking lame.", Kid says with a shrug as he takes a drag from his cigarette.

"So is dying from lung cancer Eustass-ya.", Law says as he flips him off and leaves the bathroom with a smirk.

"Asshole.", Kid says as he takes another drag from his cigarette with a grin on his face.

* * *

Law had everything under control contrary to what literally all the evidence told him.

He still maintained his straight As at his high school, he had a lot of friends that he actually doesn't mind being around. He already applied to multiple high ranking med schools. Yeah, he had everything under control.

At least he did until Luffy decided to shove food in face during lunch. He had been deliberately sitting outside away from the commotion and smells from the lunch room. It was nice, reading a book in the decent weather outside and pretending like what he was doing was completely normal. There was nothing wrong with skipping lunch. In fact, he'd say he felt much better ever since he started doing it. No more gross school food that he didn't even want to eat anyways. Yeah, this was much better.

It was at least until Luffy found where he was sitting.

"Torao, this is where you've been?!", The straw hatted man said with glee as he sat next to Law. Law sighed and marked the page he was reading, knowing damn well he wasn’t getting any more reading done this lunch period.

“Yes Strawhat-ya, obviously. Actually, I was sitting here to get some peace and quiet.”, Law subtly hints but of course it flies right over Luffy’s head. The other laughs and slings an arm around him and Law huffs, not feeling up to another talk with Luffy about boundaries and personal space.

“That’s so boring! You always don’t have enough fun!”, Luffy pouts.

“Believe it or not Strawhat-ya but this is very fun to me.”, Law says as he holds up his book that he would very much like to finish.

“Wow! I could never finish a book like that, you’re so smart Torao”, Luffy says with a laugh as he sets down his backpack he had been carrying and starts digging through it. “Did you really finish your lunch so quickly though? You must have brought one if you’re not in the lunchroom.”

“I didn’t bring a lunch, so sorry I don’t have any food to give you.”, Law says as he rolls his eyes. He would always give Luffy the food he didn’t want to eat last year. He expects some whining about Luffy being so hungry without the usual extra scraps, but all he gets is a worried “What?!”  
Law blinks. He forgets sometimes what he’s doing is not normal at all. He swallows and quickly thinks of a good lie. “I forgot my lunch at home. It’s too late to go and get a school one now.”

“That’s terrible!”, Luffy says in shock. He finds a container and pops off the lid. “Well- You’re so lucky because Ace always packs me extra! He said I should stop eating all my friends’ food”, he says with a laugh and the corners of Law’s mouth turn down slightly.

“Really, I’m good Strawhat-ya..”, Law says as he pulls his hat a little bit down. Luffy just laughs.

“Come on Torao! I can’t let any of my friends go hungry! I won’t leave you alone until you eat this piece!”, Luffy says insistently. He’s pushing the container of food closer to him. Law looks at it in disgust. It’s a perfectly normal sandwich, two pieces of them actually. There was way too much on the sandwich, multiple slices of cheeses and meats. But, Law knew better than most that when Luffy said something he meant it. He was one of the most stubborn people that law knew. So he picked up the half and held it in his hand. It felt heavy. He didn’t even like bread.

“Thank you Strawhat-ya.”, Law says, hoping that will be it, but Luffy just smiles his big trademark smile.

“Of course, it’s really good!”, He says as he takes his own piece and starts eating it. Law tries not to show how irritated he felt. Why was he still here? Luffy looks over at him expectantly.

“Well?”, Luffy asks. 

“I don’t like bread.”, Law says. It wasn’t a lie. He had always avoided eating bread when Corazon would try to give him sandwiches. His father always complained about how he was a picky eater.

“You won’t even notice it!”, Luffy insists. Law feels like his head is about to burst from the headache that was starting to form.

“Fine.”, Law says as he holds up the sandwich. He takes a small bite from it and Luffy’s eyes glow. He was already finished with his own sandwich. Law chewed the mess of a bite in mouth. It was too much. He already had his morning coffee with a spoonful of sugar. How was he supposed to eat dinner with Corazon later tonight, taking as few bites as he could before he secretly hides the rest of the food and throws it away? 

He thickly swallows the bite and feels sick. He was going to throw up, he swears he was.

“Well, Zoro promised me I could copy his math homework so I should go find him!”, Luffy says with a laugh. “See you later Torao!”

Law doesn’t bother saying anything or looking up as the other bounces away. All he could focus on was how sick he felt.

Law was always in control of this habit he formed. He started it at the end of junior year. He doesn’t know why but he was starting to see something wrong in the way he looked in the mirror. Too much fat on his cheeks and his upper arms. Yeah, it was something like that. So he decided he would just fix it up. Yeah, he was great at perfecting himself. He was too busy with his studies to really worry too much about a diet. He didn’t need more of that stress in his life, so he decided he’d just eat less. Yeah, he knew as an aspiring doctor what that sounded like. An eating disorder. But no, this would only be for a couple of days until the extra weight he got trimmed itself off.

He started skipping breakfast. Corazon was always out the door early anyways to go to work so he didn’t notice the way Law would sit at the kitchen table each morning and have a cup of coffee. He used to drink it with milk and sugar. It was the way Corazon liked it too. He remembers the first time Corazon let him have a cup in his sophomore year. He had commented something about how big he was getting. He gave Law a cup of the liquid, with milk and a lot of sugar. Law had drunk it despite his comment about how unhealthy it was which earned a laugh from his dad.

But no, now he knew better. No wonder why things got so out of control with his weight. Black coffee with a bit of sugar was fine for him now.

Months passed and he still did it. He knows he lost the weight, the numbers on the scale told him so, but it just never seemed right to him. He didn’t think he really looked that different at first. He had started to eat small lunches. Some baby carrots or celery was usually nice. But soon that just made him feel put off. He stopped eating lunch too a few weeks ago. Nobody really noticed, surprisingly. He felt guilty for expecting someone to come up to him and ask why he wasn’t eating at the table with the rest of them. It was a selfish thought, and when he thought it he would frown and push it to the side. There was nothing wrong with what he was doing. He knew how to control it. He wasn’t like the others who would do this.

So, he knew what to do when things like this happened. When his father had the day off and decided to cook breakfast, he would force himself to eat some of it so the man wouldn’t worry. After all, it was the least Law owed him after Corazon would usually accidentally set himself on fire while he cooked. A few spoonfuls of eggs and strips of bacon were surprisingly enough to set off some sort of balance scale he had made up unknowingly to himself. 

He remembers the first day he shoved two fingers down his throat like it was yesterday. He wasn’t really sure why he had did that, he just felt like he needed to at the time. He’s not an idiot. He knew the consequences self regurgitation had. He knew how he was killing his esophagus and rotting his teeth. But, he didn’t do it often. He just did it when he needed to so it was fine. Nothing a swish of mouthwash and a very cold shower afterwards can’t fix.

So without thinking he stood up from the bench, the book already shoved in his backpack as he slinged it back over his shoulder and started briskly walking to the second floor, his heart beating fast. Everyone knew the second floor bathroom was where you went if you wanted to be alone. Hardly anyone went there since there were no classes on the floor. It was the perfect spot to get sick without anyone noticing.

He shoves the door open. He still had about twenty minutes before his next class so he had a lot of time. He locks himself in one of the stalls and shucks his coat off and hangs it up. His hands are shaking and a voice in the back of his head asks himself why is he doing this. He ignores it and shoves his fingers in his mouth. He gags and tries not to think about the gross taste in his mouth and the familiar burning in his throat as he throws up.

He hears the door open as he watches the vomit swish in the toilet. Fucking great.

He catches his breath, eyes stinging from the tears that had formed. His hands shake as he flushes the toilet. Maybe whoever was in here would take a quick shit and leave. He didn’t feel like seeing people right now. But surprise surprise, whoever this asshole was didn’t even go in a stall. They were probably just dicking around on their phone by the sink. Law sighs and pulls his coat back on. Whatever, he’ll just ignore the person.

He leaves the stall and freezes when he sees a familiar man applying lipstick by the mirror. Only one person in school wears bright red lipstick like that to school everyday. The man who punched him second grade. The one who annoyed him and made him laugh during the class. The one who made Law have increasingly confused and annoying feelings. Yeah- that one.

Law tried his best to play it smooth as he went to the sink and watched his hands. He tried hard to focus on the words between them instead of the shaking of his hands under the scalding hot water. Kid had obviously heard him puking in the bathroom. Great- just another thing he needed today. He thought the redhead would poke fun at him with it but to his surprise the other seemed almost worried. It made something in Law almost want to stay in the bathroom with the other longer.

Sure, Law hated Eustass Kid’s guts badly. It was always amusing making the other annoyed. Kid had this one vein on his forehead that looked like it was going to pop if Law went too far. But the great thing about their feud over the years was that they both never crossed the line. Kid never talked about Law’s dead family or the fact he’s adopted which had confused Law at first. It was an obvious target that the redhead would avoid. Instead Kid talked about his hat or his stuffed bear he would always carry around or the fact that he’s apparently creepy. In return Law would talk about his dumb patterned pants, his goggles, or the fact he shaves his eyebrows. Law never once mentioned Kid’s missing arm or his prosthetic, even though Law was interested in it medically speaking.

It was a perfect arrangement of being assholes towards each other without being too much at the same time. Law would be damned if he ruined it because he decided to grow some sort of feelings out of it. He left the bathroom while flipping Kid off. Yeah he had everything under control

* * *

Law’s next class was chemistry. His assigned seat was in the back next to Penguin. Law loved his friend, but Penguin was honestly not the smartest bulb when it came to the class, but Law didn’t mind giving the other the extra help. He just wished Penguin would stop talking about his boyfriend already.

Yeah, Law like everyone else on the planet knew about the love birds that was Killer and Penguin. At first Law was strongly against it. For god's sake, the man’s nickname was Killer for a reason. The blonde was constantly in fights and was in great shape from weight lifting constantly. Law knew Penguin could handle himself, he saw the way Penguin got into fights in middle school, but it still rang alarm bells. It was all for nothing thankfully. The tall blonde seemed to adore and shower Penguin in love and affection constantly. It was almost sickening seeing the two together. But Penguin was happier than Law ever saw him, so he allowed it. That didn’t stop him from giving Killer a warning about how he’d take out all his organs if he ever messed with his friend.

“He gave me chocolates this morning! You should try one, they’re really good-”, Penguin rattled on. Law thought about it for a second. A chocolate wouldn’t hurt, but he was too unsettled by the mistake he made during lunch to take the offer.

“I think I’ll pass. We’re not supposed to eat in the lab anyways.”, Law pointed out. Penguin laughed a bit.

“You’re always so serious Law- But ok.”, Penguin says with a smile. The other suddenly sits up. “Oh- You know Law, I think you should find a boyfriend for yourself.”

“Excuse me?”, Law says as he stops in the middle of his writing.

“Well yeah”, Penguin says with a smile. “We were talking during lunch and-”

“We? Talking about who, me?”, Law asks and Penguin shrugs.

“Well kind of-”, Penguin says suddenly a bit nervous. He whispers, “I know about your crush on Kid, I think you should tell him.”

“What are you even saying right now?”, Law asks. He feels his heart beating. Great. Just how the hell did Penguin find about his complicated feelings for Kid.  
“Law it’s ok, I won’t tell anyone”, Penguin says supportively. “I can even help set you two up, I’m sure Killer can help too. We’ve seen the way you two flirt with each other-”

“Flirt?”, Law hisses.

“Well yeah- All that banter you two have while standing really close to each other and looking into each other’s eyes and-”

“That’s!- It’s not flirting.”, Law says. He has to force himself to lower his voice. He looks across the classroom. Kid is sitting in one of the front seats, the one right by the teacher’s desk. He was moved there after he caused a small explosion during their first lab. Law was grateful he couldn’t hear the ridiculousness right now. All this time, did Penguin really see it as flirting? Just how many other people saw it as that?

“Law really-”, Penguin tries but Law gets back to his work, not really thinking straight as he tries to read over the words on the worksheet they had to complete.

“Leave me and my love life alone. My nonexistent one with Kid- Because I don’t like him.”, Law says as he starts writing. Penguin sighs and says, “Alright, well the offer still stands. Hey are you feeling alright? You look kind of pale-”

“Yeah. I’m just fine.”, Law says. He was getting good at lying lately.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the kind reviews yesterday! The support really motivated me to keep going with this, thank you. I also want to say that as the tags say, I plan on having a hopeful ending. As much as venting by writing the bad parts are helping me, I really think ending it badly would just bring me down of course lol.

Kid definitely did not look out for the familiar white and spotted hat that irritated him to no end as he walked into the lunchroom the next day. He didn’t know why the hell he couldn’t get Law out of his head ever since yesterday. Seeing the smug bastard sick in the washroom really put off his whole day. He saw the asshole still at chem even though he still looked pale and tired as hell. He wonders if Law still had sleeping problems. He remembers fifth grade when he forgot his slingshot in his desk and he tried sneaking back in the class after school to go get it. Corazon was talking to the teacher inside about how Law kept falling asleep during class. Something about nightmares and insomnia. Kid was too concerned about how he’s going to get his slingshot at the time to think about it too much, but he thinks about it now when he’s in class and sees Law yawning.

Sleeping problems or not, the asshole was definitely sick. Kid entertains the thought that Law is actually sick again, like really sick. 

“What the hell are you thinking about?”, Killer asks and snaps the redhead out of thoughts.

“What the hell are you talking about?”, Kid asks as he stabs the chicken nugget on his plate with his spork and eats it. He talks with his mouth full. “Do I have to tell you every thought in my head dumbass?”

“No, but when you’re nearly glaring at the Heat for a solid five minutes, I just have to ask.”, Killer says with a shrug. Penguin smiles next to him, practically on the other’s lap. Kid rolls his eyes.

“Well then Heat shouldn’t have sat in front of me-”, Kid responds as he shoves more chicken nuggets in his mouth. 

“Hey! What did I ever do to you?”, Heat asks with a huff.

“Don’t take it personally, Kid is just love constipated.”, Apoo says with a grin. 

“Love consti-”, Kid gawks but stops. “I’ve had enough of your bullshit Apoo, why the hell do you and your boyfriend even sit here?”

“Boyfriend?”, Apoo asks and Kid points to Hawkins looking at his stupid tarrot cards next to him. “That’s not! We’re not!- Listen, you’re going off track now-”

“Whatever, just keep your name out of my mouth-”, Kid says and the rest of them snicker.

“Kid’s grumpy-”, Wire mumbles.

“Oh is this because of his crush on Law- That’s so cute.”, Penguin says and Kid can feel a headache forming.

“I’m going to do all of you a favor and leave before I beat all of your asses. Next person to say that creep’s name at this table is getting knocked to the ground got it?”, Kid says and like a bunch of little kids the whole table seems to say “Trafalgar Law” at the same time causing some people at the table Luffy and his friends sit to turn and look.

“Tomorrow! Watch your fucking backs!”, Kid yells as he gets up with his empty tray. They just laugh behind him as he leaves, Killer saying he’s just cranky because he didn’t have his daily smoke. What assholes. Why was everyone so obsessed with Law lately? Hasn’t he proven to everyone that he hates his guts?

He grumbles as he goes to the courtyard. Maybe some fresh air will make his headache calm down. 

He goes outside and sighs, the slight fall breeze hitting him. He hardly goes to the courtyard honestly. It was too obvious of a place to go and smoke, and most of the people who sat here alone during lunch were lame in his eyes. Besides, he was practically the leader at his lunch table anyways, even if they didn’t really treat him like it most of the times.

“What dumbasses”, He grumbles to himself as he starts walking. He stops when he sees a familiar figure sitting on the bench.

Golden eyes are scan over words in some medical book that the young man held in his hands. The figure was crouched, not really standing up straight as if that was too much. Yeah, that stupid fluffy hat and even dumber coat were unmistakable. Trafalgar Law was sitting out here alone during lunch.

Kid frowns. Law had always sat with his friends during lunch in the past. Sometimes he would go over to Kid’s table just to piss him off. So why the hell was he out here alone.

“Jesus christ, are you even more of a nerd this year?”, Kid says as he walks over to him. He sits next to Law on the bench and Law sighs and marks the page on his book and looks up at Kid. His eyes seemed even tireder than yesterday. Kid frowns. Was this asshole still sick?

“Sorry you don’t know how to read Eustass-ya. Am I making you jealous?”, Law snarks and Kid snorts.

“No, I just don’t read about cutting people open and taking out there bones like you do-”

“That is not what surgery is.”, Law says as he rolls his eyes but there is a hint of a smile there that makes Kid keep going.

“Oh right- It’s poking at someone’s heart while it’s still beating right?”, Kid asks.

“What do you want? Shouldn’t you be sitting with your circus right now? You seem to be the ringleader of it.”, Law says and Kid rolls his eyes.

“Those clowns are being assholes today, what’s new. Why aren’t you sitting with Strawhat? I thought you two were best buddies.”, Kid says curiously.

“We are not best buddies. I get enough of him tutoring him in the mornings anyways..”, Law says with a shrug.

“So you can teach a Monkey new tricks?”, Kid asks which earns a small laugh from Law.

“Really, he has an unfortunate name..”, Law says.

“You didn’t even reply to my question-”, Kid points out. He looks at Law up and down. “Where even is your lunch?”

Law frowns at that. The atmosphere they had before suddenly grows cold and Kid could sense it immediately. Had the other been to late to go and grab a school lunch today or what?

“I already had it Eustass-ya.”, Law says. He grabs his book and opens it. “Excuse me, I think I’m going to go back to reading now.”

“Geez- Why are you suddenly a sourpuss?”, Kid asks as Law pointedly ignores him and continues to stare at the page in his book. Kid huffs. Whatever, that’s what he gets for caring. He pulls out one of his cigarettes and lights it. He didn’t really care about being caught today.

“Can you not do that here?”, Law asks without looking up.

“Why not?”, Kid asks as he blows out a puff of smoke.

“You’re asking someone who recovered from stage four cancer why you can’t smoke near them?”, Law asked. Kid rolled his eyes.

“Yeah yeah whatever, I’ll just blow the opposite direction see?”, Kid says he does just that.

“You are literally the worst Eustass-ya..”, Law says but Kid sees the small smile on his face.

“Yeah I guess so.”, he says as he takes another drag. Damn it. Why was he smiling now too?

* * *

Law never really liked to sleep. There was something about seeing your family die in a fire that made dreams forever unpleasant.  
The nightmares were the worst back when Doflamingo had custody over him. Law would toss and turn on the big bed provided for him as he coughed and thought over nightmares of him telling Lammi to stay in the closet while he looked for help. It was all he thought about back then. If he had just did things a little differently, he could have saved Lami too. But she was gone, and Law didn’t really care that he was slowly dying. 

He had hated the other kids Doflamingo adopted. There were so many of them, and they would always whine and bother Law. No matter how many times Law snapped at them to leave him alone and that he would kill them, they still tormented him. He quickly learned at that house that their caretaker didn’t give a shit. Doflamingo would talk about how sad it was that Law was so sick without a shred of sadness in his voice. He would tell Law he’d get him toys and candy, but he didn’t take Law to the hospital anymore after the doctors told him it was stage four.

He was too sick to move or care back then. He hated how tired he would get because it meant more dreams of fire and family. He was too tired to even cry anymore. He didn’t have enough energy to care when they would forget to bring him in food or even check on him. He wanted to die right then and there on that bed that was too big in that wretched house, but Corazon had different plans.

Law had hated him at first. Baby went into his room before Corazon’s planned visit. She had told Law all about Corazon and how he was mute and Doflamingo’s brother and that he just got back from the army. She told Law that Corazon hated kids and was probably going to kill them all. Law remembers saying something along the lines of “I hope so.”

Apparently that wasn’t very funny, or so Doflamingo told him a few minutes later after Baby snitched on him. He told him it wasn’t a joke and the man just laughed at him.

“He’s a funny one isn’t he little brother?”, Doflamingo said to the other man next to him. The man, Corazon, just glared at Law. Law glared back.

Corazon kept coming over to visit after that. For some reason he would always end up in Law’s room. Law would ignore him or tell him to fuck off. “Let me die in peace”, he would say. He was only eight years old. 

Apparently Corazon had broken his quiet streak after that. The selective mute had yelled at Doflamingo for hours. Law only knows because Baby had told him, hand over her chest as she dramatically retold the argument.

“You broke apart their brotherly bond! Doffy says there’s nothing we can do for you but Corazon- He said we can’t give up!”, She said and Law blinked. Why the hell did Corazon suddenly care about a dead kid like him.

“Well you all should. I’m basically already dead.”, He said, which earned tears and crying from Baby. Law rolled his eyes.

The next day Corazon came into his room and asked him what stuff he wanted to take with him to their new home. He apparently made Doflamingo give up custody of Law. Law never understood why at the time, but Corazon really wanted Law to live. He took him to top hospitals that Corazon had to pay out of the ass for, and he made sure Law was comfortable. He would sit by Law as the child lay on the hospital bed. No matter how much time passed it seemed like the man was always right next to Law. They talked more. Law was bitter and tried to push the man away, but it’s hard to hate someone that was doing so much for you. It was hard hating someone who gave you a stuffed bear and told you about how you shouldn’t give up.

Somehow, Law recovered enough to be able to go back home. He didn’t feel as sick all the time as he did before. Corazon had carried him up on his shoulders as they left the hospital and Law held on and complained about how he was up too high which earned some laughs from his father.

“I would never let you fall Law! I’ll always hold onto you”, He had said and Law believed him.

* * *

Law sighed as he rubbed his eyes and sat up on the bed. Another night, another nightmare. He had stayed up late last night until he could barely keep his eyes open. Sometimes sleeping when he’s dead tired makes him too far gone to even remember the dreams he had, but that didn’t work tonight. It was another dream about Lami. He hadn’t had one of those in a while. He kicks the covers off and gets out of bed. He changes into his clothes, shucking his coat on. 

Thank god for the cold weather coming. He could wear his coat all day without many questions. Law knew why he did it, but he didn’t like to think about it. Nobody could see his body in the coat, including himself. But no, he just did it because he was cold of course. He wasn’t like those other people who did what he did. He had things under control.

“Hey! Good morning. Sorry I’ve been working so much lately-”, Corazon said as he waved to Law as he entered the kitchen. Law frowned a bit. Fuck, he was making breakfast. He must have had the day off.

“Morning Cora-ya..”, He says as he pours himself a cup of coffee. Black, no sugar this time. If he was right, Corazon would drag him to eat the breakfast he was making with him. Law swallows the coffee. Maybe he could think of some excuse to leave even early. He already had to leave early to go tutor Luffy and Zoro in the morning. He could just say they’re meeting earlier.

He opens his mouth to say something but Corazon is suddenly dragging him to the table. “Go ahead and sit Law! Eggs and bacon sound good right?”

“Sounds great Cora-ya..”, He says as he tries not to grimace. He hides his frown by taking another sip of coffee. He smells the simmering eggs and bacon on the stove and it already smells like too much. He thinks about having to eat it and a wave of nausea passes through him. Corazon doesn’t notice all of that though. He’s humming some song as he cooks on the stove. Their kitchen wasn’t very impressive, as the rest of the apartment wasn’t. Corazon never told Law but, Law knew his father had given up his portion of the Donquixote fortune to pay for Law’s treatment and get them this home. The least Law could do was eat the damn breakfast.

“Here you are!”, Corazon says as he puts the plate in front of Law. Two pieces of eggs and two pieces of bacon. Law tries hard not to show how much he hates it. 

“It looks great-”, He says as he forces a smile. “And you didn’t catch anything on fire this time-”

“Yeah, great huh?”, Corazon laughs as he quickly hides a spot on his sleeve that got burned. Law smiles as Corazon starts eating from his own plate.

Law looks down at his own and takes his fork. It’s just eggs and bacon. Maybe if he eats one egg and hides the two pieces of bacon while Corazon wasn’t looking? Then he could say he didn’t want the one egg left over. Yeah- That could work. He’ll just take care of it when he leaves.

He digs his fork into the whites of one of the egg and hesitantly puts it to his mouth. He doesn’t bother chewing. If he starts that he’ll never stop chewing because of how much he doesn’t want to swallow it. He hated when things broke his schedule he had all planned. But this was Corazon, and he made him breakfast. Law used to like breakfast with Corazon. It meant his father had the day off and they could talk more. It felt wrong to hate this.

“Are you feeling ok Law? You’ve been looking a little pale-”, Corazon says worriedly. He always mother-hens whenever Law is sick, and it’s no wonder why.

“I feel fine Cora-ya, really. You worry too much.”, He says as he eats another piece of egg white. He tries really hard not to think about it. He’s almost done, just some more bites and the yolk and he’ll be done.

“No I don’t”, Corazon says. “We hardly get to talk anymore! You’re getting so big already-”

“I’m eighteen-”

“You’re still my baby Law to me.”, Corazon says with a smile and Law rolls his eyes.

“Well your ‘baby Law’ is going to college soon. How are you going to manage without me?”, He says. 

“Don’t remind me. I guess I could always call you.”, He says and Law groans which earns a laugh from Corazon.

“I’m just kidding. Kind of- I’ll call you everyday.”, He says as he eats his piece of bacon. He looks at Law’s plate. “You’re not eating much, is there something wrong?”

Law curses in his head. Great. He was being too obvious about his slow eating. 

“No..”, He says as he takes a bigger bite on purpose. It feels too thick when he swallows it and he has to take a sip of the coffee to keep it down.

“You can’t fool me Law- Is it school? A test? Or-”, Corazon frowns. “Is it a boy?”

Law groans. Corazon already knew Law was gay. Law had told him in middle school when he had his first thought about another boy. Law didn’t like to think about it. How his first spark of feelings was because of striking red hair and a dumb snarky smile. He didn’t tell Corazon who it was. Corazon would have literally killed the poor boy. The one who gave Law a black eye and caused his gay awakening? Law knows he made the right move just telling Corazon he likes boys. Corazon was more than supportive not to much surprise, and Law thought he had pummeled those damn feelings in the ground. Yet here he was, still with the same awful feeling in his chest because of the boy with the striking red hair.

“No.”, Law says. It must be too quick and unconvincing because Corazon smiles big.

“Oh my god- It is! Who is it?”, Corazon asks. “Should I be worried? Oh god, please don’t tell me its Luffy-”

“No it is not Luffy!”, Law says as he pinches his nose. People seemed to think him and the annoying kid in the strawhat were something because of the way Luffy always clings to him. But Luffy was definitely not Law’s type.

“Well then who?”, Corazon asks.

“I can’t believe we’re having this conversation- What happened to the you’re not allowed to have a boyfriend talk?”

“Well, I have to know to scare off-”

“I have to go to school Cora-ya”, Law says as he stands up. Corazon is too distracted by the conversation to notice that Law’s plate is still full. Law slides his fork across the plate and throws all the food away, making sure it doesn’t sit at the top where Corazon could see it. 

“Oh come on, don’t leave me in the dark Law!”, He says with a smile, and Law is just relieved he got away with that easily that he smiles.

“There’s no one. I’m too busy with school anyways-”, Law says. He grabs his backpack and waves. “See you after school dad.”

Corazon smiles. “This conversation isn’t over!”

“Yeah yeah”, Law says as he leaves.

Once he’s outside he sighs and pulls his hat down. Despite the chill air outside hitting him, he feels sick. It feels like there’s a pit in his stomach and now that he’s alone he feels even more nauseous than before. He looks at his watch. He needed to get to school quickly. If he gets there early enough he can have time to go to the bathroom before he has to tutor.

He quickens his walk as he holds onto the straps of his book bag tightly.

* * *

Eustass Kid didn’t go to school early. I mean, why the hell would he? The place pisses him off to no end anyways, so why be there for longer. If it wasn’t the law, he’d just not go to the hellhole at all. In his opinion, only losers go to school early, which is exactly what he would remind Luffy whenever he mentioned he had to be at school early somedays for tutoring. He didn’t get why Law tutored people for free. If Kid was him he’d tell those assholes to pay up. But he wasn’t Law, and damn he did not want to be.

Yeah, he was perfectly fine going to school five minutes late everyday and pissing off his first teacher of the day.

But there he was. At school early sitting in the passenger seat of Killer’s car with Heat and Wire in the back.

“This is so fucking stupid- Why couldn’t we have the fight y'know, after school? Like normal people?”, Kid voiced his complaint yet again. He had said along the same lines ever since Killer came into his room and woke him up at the asscrack of dawn and told him they were having a fight.

“I already told you- I’m busy after school.”, Killer says.

“I don’t give a fuck if you planned something with your boyfriend after school- This is lame as hell.”, Kid said.

“Well, we’re already here so shut up or stay in the car and sleep like a little baby.”, Killer snaps back.

“Asshole-”, Kid grumbles. He was definitely not missing out on this fight though. Apparently, Apoo has been talking with Kaido. Everyone knows how much Kid and his crew hated that asshole. Him and Kid had gotten into many fights before. Unlike other people he “hated” (see Trafalgar Law), he would have no problem beating the shit out of Kaido. And for Apoo to sit at their table and laugh with them while he was turning around and talking to that asshole? Yeah no-

So the four of them were on their way to meet with Kaido, Apoo, and Hawkins so they can beat the shit out of them. Hawkins didn’t really do anything wrong really. But, of course he picked to fight alongside Apoo since everyone in the school but the two of them knew of their crush they had on each other.

Killer parked the car in the parking lot. There weren’t many cars there since it was still early which only made Kid want to complain more. 

“I’m really killing them now for making me have to wake up this early- We haven't even had breakfast yet-”, Kid complained.

“We can get breakfast afterwards- Not like you’re worried about being late anyways.”, Killer points out and Kid huffs.

“Fighting on an empty stomach isn’t good.”, He says and Heat laughs.

“Quit whining and let’s focus on this fight-”, Killer says as he gets out of the car and slams the door shut. Kid rolls his eyes and gets out of the car. He huffs at the chill air. Who wants to fight in the cold anyways?

There’s some sort of complaint on his lips, but it stops when he sees a familiar figure from afar. White spotted hat and long black coat. There was no mistaking who that was. Kid grins, expecting Law to stop and come over and ask why Kid was at school so early.

He already imagines the scenario in his head. Law would go over, say something about how Kid wasn’t late for once, and Kid would tell him about the big fight about to happen. Law would definitely snark about how he was going to get his ass kicked even though they both knew that wasn’t true. If Kid was lucky, Law would stick around a little longer and watch it. Yeah, Kid would really like to rub it in his face when he actually won the fight.

But much to his surprise, Law doesn’t walk over. He doesn’t even notice Kid. He’s looking straight ahead, eyes slightly wide as he gripped the straps of his book bag tightly in his hands. If Kid looked up the word distressed in the dictionary, a picture of the brisk walking Trafalgar Law from afar would be right next to the word.

He must be the only one to notice it though, because the rest are talking about a fight plan, like they don’t always wing it and use brute strength in the end anyways. Kid notices it though. He watches Law quickly enter the school building and frowns. Images of Law exiting the stal pop up in his mind. There was something wrong with him. And Kid was bound to find out.

* * *

Law doesn’t really remember the walk there. It was kind of a fuzz in his head, but he was too focused on one thing to really be bothered by that. He was going to puke. He needed to. Law swore if he opened his mouth then and there he would be sick in the school hallway, and he really didn’t need that.

He considers the possibility he got sick, because this shouldn’t be. He had everything under control. He’s not like one of those people who are so far gone that they messed up their gag reflex. He’s not like one of those people who need to do it- he was just choosing to do this. This was his choice.

He opens the stall door with shaky hands and barely manages to tear his backpack and coat off before he’s puking into the toilet.

It’s gross, and once he starts he can’t stop. He feels his shaking hands gripping the edges of the cool toilet, too gone to think about how disgusting that is. His throat and something in his chest burns from it all and he focuses on it as he dispels more of his insides. 

When he’s done he catches his breath, chest heaving as he looks at the water. It was moments like those when something shone through the walls he put up in his mind. This was fucked up. He knew it was destroying him. He was going to be a doctor for fucks sake- He should know better. He does know better. So why didn’t he care? Why? Why didn’t he-

He pulls the handle of the toilet down quickly, the disgusting contents and those thoughts going down down down the drain.

He stands up from the floor, his knees aching slightly at being on the hard ground. He stands up quickly. His head is aching, and the taste in his mouth makes him gag, but he knows if he turns around he’ll just be dry heaving.

He grabs his backpack and coat he hung up on the hook. He doesn’t feel like putting any of it on at the moment, so he just carries it out with him. He goes to the sink and looks at his tired eyes in the mirror. 

He didn’t even look that different. Same golden eyes with dark bags under them, same scruffy hair hidden under a hat, and same just too much fat on all his edges. He sighs and washes his hands, making the water as hot as it could go. He leans against the edge of the sink. There’s something funny going on. Spots are filling his vision, and his legs suddenly feel like they’re about to give out.

He doesn’t even have enough time to curse before he’s falling over and colliding with the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not too much KidLaw yet sorry-


	3. Chapter 3

Not much to Kid’s surprise, Hawkins and Apoo got their asses beat.

He should feel bad for the guy. After all he brough his flute to the fight, saying something idiotic about how he had composed the perfect fight song for the occasion like they were in some of video game. But did Kid feel bad for the guy? No- Which is exactly why he punched him in the face hard, Apoo’s glasses flying off of his face and landing with a crack on the ground.

“Hope you have insurance-”, Kid snickered as he saw Apoo scramble to try and salvage the broken pieces off the ground.

This didn’t fly well with Hawkins. Surprisingly he was a better fighter than Apoo despite being shorter, but they had taken care of him too, Heat just getting a few bruises that didn’t really matter. Hawkins didn’t fight very often, choosing to sit around and talk about magic and fortune telling. He was almost as much of a creep as Law, but that didn’t really help his fighting skills. Yeah, Kid knew the whole time the big kicker was Kaido. 

The asshole actually had the nerve to stand behind and watch Apoo and Hawkins get their asses kicked without stepping in to help. It was almost as if he expected them to lose the fight anyways.

Kid had grinned, tightening his fist and saying something to the others about how he could handle that one alone. Killer called him an idiot, but that didn’t stop Kid from throwing a punch. Yeah- it might have been a bad idea, and yeah, when Kaido punched him back he got knocked over, but hey- In the end the rest of them jumped in and helped him take down the giant.

A victory for him and his crew. They had all clapped each other on the back and fist bumped each other as the three had admitted defeat and dragged their sorry asses away. That teaches Apoo to fuck with Kid. And Hawkins? To not get into any of Apoo’s fights.

Kid was so much in a good mood that he decided he wasn’t going to complain about the fact that he had to wake up early for that, or the fact they were outside the school parking lot a half hour before school started. But, he was still fucking hungry.

“Can we fucking go and eat now?”, Kid turned to Killer as he used the back of his hand to wipe some blood he had under his nose. That punch from Kaido hit too well. That bastard. Good thing those three assholes, dragged themselves away. He would have considered kicking their asses again.

“Oh my god- Do you shut up for one second? I’ll go get us McDonalds- Just shut up and go clean yourself up, you look like shit.”, Killer says as he ties his blonder hair up. He hardly had a scratch on him.

“Fine- Get me three McGriddles.”, Kid says. 

“Whatever- We’ll meet next to my locker.”, Killer says as he waves. Kid watches the three of them pile into the car and drive off. He rolls his eyes and looks down at the blood on his hand. He guesses he really does need to go clean himself up.

He shrugs and walks into the school. It felt weird being there before classes started. He yawns and remembers seeing Law speed walk inside earlier and wonders what his deal was. He doubts Law was in that of a hurry to go and tutor.

“What an asshole..”, Kid grumbles. He was still convinced Law saw him in the parking lot earlier but chose to ignore him. He was right fucking there. He knows him and Law weren’t best buds, but the asshole could have at least looked at him. 

He should give him a piece of his mind, but when he peers into the lunchroom where Law usually tutors Luffy and Zoro he’s surprised to see only the two idiots sitting at the table, Luffy whining about how a problem was too hard.

“Hey! Where’s Trafalgar? I have a bone to pick with that asshole.”, Kid says as he goes over. It’s not really that true. He didn’t feel like fighting him, but he’d be damned if that stopped him from simply bothering the man.

“Does it look like we know where he is? What are you guys fighting about now?”, Zoro asks annoyed. Kid throws up his hands.

“What do you mean you don’t know where he is? Isn’t he supposed to be wasting his time here with you two?”, Kid asks as he looks around.

“Hey!”, Zoro says and Luffy shrugs.

“He texted me saying he might be a little late but then he didn’t show up! It’s so weird, Torao never did this before. I even left him some texts on his phone!”, Luffy says as he holds out his phone that has a messenger app with a row of texts that just say “Torao!!!”. There were no further responses from Law though.

“What the hell?”, Kid mumbles. Yeah, Law was not the nicest, but he never really stood people up like that. He always made it a point to even be early to things. He was that asshole who showed up to a party early. Something was wrong. He remembers the image of Law sick again and swallows. If something was wrong with him and he wasn’t telling anyone, he really was going to beat him up.

“Whatever. Maybe he finally realized how hopeless trying to teach you two is.”, Kid says with a shrug.

“Hey if you want to fight-!”, Zoro says as he stands up. The few other kids in the room look over at them, probably hoping for a fight,

“Not today. I have more important things to do.”, Kid says with a final wave as he starts walking away. He hears Zoro talk to Luffy about how annoying he is as he leaves the room. Whatever. He doesn’t care about Law. It wasn’t any of his business what he did and didn’t do.

Which is exactly why he specifically picked the second floor bathroom to go and get cleaned up in. Yeah, he knew realistically Law getting sick in that bathroom was probably just a one time thing, but something in the back of his mind chewed at the encounter.

He pushes open the door, stepping inside, and his heart drops when he sees the still body on the floor. He blinks hard, not really processing just what he’s seeing. There was a man out cold on the bathroom floor. This wasn’t just some random idiot though. It was an idiot with a stupid hat.

“What the hell-”, Kid blurts out as he finally snaps out of it and kneels next to Law. He was face first on the ground, and Kid had to flip him over to see his face. 

He scrambles to reach for Law’s wrist, fingers scrambling along the arm, not quite sure where the pulse was supposed to be but when he felt it under his fingers he sighed in relief and muttered a “Jesus Christ..”

The man looked like death. He was still fucking pale, and the bags under his eyes seemed even worse than yesterday. With that bulky jacket off, Kid thought the other looked like a twig. When did Law lose so much weight? There was something definitely wrong, and it made something inside of Kid twist.

“Trafalgar- Wake up!”, He says more urgently this time. He picks up the other’s head off from the floor and places it on his lap, suddenly not giving a shit about how close they are. Images of Law when he was sick during elementary school fill his vision. Law always missed a day after his chemo appointments. When he came back he would look like hell. Kid had really thought he was going to die in those days. “Seriously, get up!”

The man groans and Kid sighs in relief when he sees the other’s eyes slowly flutter open. Law’s eyes look unfocused as they look up at him. “Eustass-ya?...”, his voice cracks. He sits up slowly and blinks a few times. He reaches up and takes off his hat and shakily runs a hand through his hair. He doesn’t say anything, a shocked look on his face.

“What the fuck Law-”, Kid finally says after another moment of silence. His voice is angry and tight. He knows he shouldn’t be angry but he can’t help it. “What was that? You were knocked out on the bathroom floor-”

“I can kind of see that.”, Law says. He still doesn’t look all there. Kid resists the urge to slap him.

“Yeah? And? We need to get you to the nurse”, Kid says.

“Eustass-ya.. I just slipped. The floor under the sink must have been wet.”, Law says. His voice isn’t as calm as it usually is, but he still forces a grim smile. “How silly of me..I should really be careful.”

“This isn’t a joke asshole. You’re sick for god's sake”, Kid says. Why wasn’t Law taking this seriously. 

“Sick? Eustass-ya, I just fell. I didn’t take you for the worried type-”, Law says. Kid knows what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to drop the subject, and get under the redhead’s skin for a different reason. But that wasn’t going to work.

“Law- Do you have it again?”, Kid says. He tries not to show how much he’s worrying in his voice. Law’s eyes widen.

“What are you talking about?..”

“Don’t make me spell it out Law-”, Kid grits out. Law sighs.

“No. Kid- I don’t have cancer again. Was that really what you were thinking?..”, Law says with a snort. Why was this asshole laughing?

“Well no shit it’s what I thought- We’re literally still on the bathroom floor where you fainted-”, Kid says as he gestures around them. Law sighs and stands up. Kid notices the way he staggers for a second when he does.

“I didn’t faint. I fell.”, Law says as he brushes himself off. He goes over and picks up his coat and Kid looks at Law’s too thin arms as he shucks the big piece of clothing on. Law seemed irritated now, that fake calm demeanor gone. He looks at the watch on his wrist and mutters “Just great-”

“Don’t tell me you’re literally about to go tutor those jackasses- When that just happened? Jesus christ Law, if you want me to walk with you to the nurses office like we’re in elementary school-”

“What do you want Kid?”, Law snaps. “Yes- I fell and must have hit my head hard on the floor. I feel fine now. I’m not sick anymore-”

“Why the hell are you so defensive about this? Even if you just slipped and hit your head shouldn’t you still go to the nurse?”, Kid points out and Law huffs.

“No. Because I can tell I don’t have a concussion. I’m busy Eustass-ya, I have to go.”, Law says dryly. He glaces at Kid and frowns. “And by the way..You have blood on your face.”

“Yeah, I know.”, Kid says. Law picks up his book bag. His hands are still shaking. He still looks sick. Kid should try to say something. He should pick up the other and carry him to the damn nurses office himself if he had to. But he doesn’t say anything as Law walks away.

* * *

When Law’s outside of the bathroom, he walks down the hallway and turns a corner and enters into one of the empty classrooms used for people to study and sits down. His heart was beating too fast in his chest and his body had a dull ache. He felt even more tired than when he first woke up this morning. But worst of all, his damn eyes sting.

He just fainted in the bathroom after puking. And his fucking crush found him.

This was wrong. He had it all under control. He didn’t think he went too far, and yet there he was just a moment before, passed out and barely able to stand after. 

When he had woken up he thought he must have been in a dream. Not a very good one since the back of his throat still burned, and he felt dizzy as shit, but it was the only explanation he could think of for why his head was on Eustass Kid’s lap. He puts his hands over his face thinking about it. This was all a mess. If Kid found out about his eating habits well- Law wasn’t really sure how the redhead would react. Kid would either be disgusted, or pity him, even though there was nothing for him to pity Law about. Or he would just do both. Which was exactly why he wasn’t going to find out. 

“I can fix this..”, He mumbles and tries to calm down.

He hears his phone buzz and jumps a bit. He fishes the device out of his pocket and isn’t surprised when he sees fifty missed messages from Luffy. He wasn’t sure how he was going to explain why he was late to them. He sighs. Classes were going to start soon anyways. He’ll just go and explain during lunch. He sighs and presses his palms against his eyes to stop some tears that threaten to fall out. He wasn’t going to cry over this, because there was nothing to cry about. He just made a small mistake, he was still doing everything right. He just needed to be more careful about things. He knew how the human body works, he knew what adjustments he could make to prevent another slip up. Law gets up and starts walking to his first class.

* * *

Law went over to Luffy’s table during lunch. The energetic kid was happy to see him, making Law sit next to him and slinging an arm over his shoulder.

“You didn’t even show up or reply to my texts!”, Luffy says with a laugh. “I have a quiz next class. You have to teach me this before my grades get worse.”

“Geez Luffy- Let the poor man eat.”, Sanji says as he points his fork at Luffy. “He doesn’t even have a lunch yet.”

“Oh! You’re right!”, Luffy says in shock. “Toroa you have to go get one before they stop serving them!”

Law swallows.

“I have a lunch, it’s just in my locker still.”, Law says as he takes Luffy’s arm off of his shoulder. “I’ll have it after I teach you this. I can’t eat and do work at the same time unlike you, Strawhat-ya.”

“Oh! I’ll learn fast then!”, Luffy says with a determined smile as he shoves some food in his mouth. His mouth is full as he looks at Law confused. “Why weren’t you here this morning anyways?”

“Cora-ya almost burnt down the kitchen again.”, Law says which earns a laugh from Luffy.

“Again? Geez, lucky for you I’ll be a fireman when I’m done with school.”, Luffy says and Law rolls his eyes. As much as he would like to deny it, it did seem like a good job for Luffy.

“Let’s focus on these problems so you can pass that quiz.”, Law says as he points to the notebook on the table and Luffy tries to listen closely as Law guides him through how to solve the problems.

* * *

What happened this morning didn’t leave Kid’s head all day. And how could it? You can’t really shake the image of someone close to you knocked out and deathly pale on the fucking ground. But just when the hell did that asshole become someone close in Kid’s head? He isn’t sure if he’s being honest. A part of him wants to push such thoughts of the man far far away. Yeah, him and Law used to talk almost every day, and yeah Kid liked to get under his skin or make the other laugh but that didn’t mean nothing.

The most important thing anyways was the fact that something was wrong with the idiot, and obviously Law wasn’t doing shit to take care of it. It was very obvious by the fact the idiot didn’t go home after this morning.

Yeah, Kid saw the way Law sat at Luffy’s table during lunch. He had rolled his eyes at the way Luffy had his arm around Law and kept getting really close to Law when he leaned over and watched as Law wrote something down. If Kid cared he would have went over and told Luffy to fuck off and mind his personal space. But he didn’t care, so he forced himself to stay seated.

“Alright. Tell me what the hell is wrong with you.”, Killer says and Kid looks over at him.

“Again with this shit? What are you talking about now?”, Kid asks.

“You’ve been silent all day. You didn’t even object when Apoo said he wants to sit here again-”, Killer points out and Apoo gawks.

“Hey!- What the fuck, when the hell did that happen!”, Kid says as he glares at Apoo. His glasses are taped and he laughs nervously as he holds up his hands defensively.

“Hey, we’re all still friends here- It was all in good fun.”, Apoo says and Kid grits his teeth.

“One, we were never friends. And two, the only fun thing about that was kicking your ass.”, Kid growls.

“See? I knew you were out of it. What the hell were you zoned out about?”, Killer asks.

“Nothing-”, Kid snaps.

“Ohhh”, Penguin says as he looks behind him where Kid was looking. He smiles. “Kid, don’t worry. Law isn’t interested in Luffy.”

“What the?!”, Kid sputters. “That’s not- I don’t give a shit who Trafalgar likes or not! I wasn’t looking over there!”

“God, I should have known it was about him again.”, Killer says. Kid can’t believe this.

“It’s not! And there’s nothing going on. Maybe if someone didn’t wake me up so damn early I wouldn’t be so out of it. Like seriously. I can’t even tell people we beat Kaido’s ass because they’ll ask when. And then I’d have to tell them them we fucking beat him up outisde of school early. All because you want to make out with your boyfriend after school.”, Kid rants.

“Sorry, all I heard was that you’re jealous I have a boyfriend and that you’re insecure Law is going to fall for Luffy.”, Killer says as he puts an arm around Penguin.

“Why would I have to worry about that dumbass picking up Law?”, Kid says and Killer grins.

“So you admit you want to “pick up Law”, huh?”, he asks.

Kid clenches his fist. “That’s not!- You know that’s not what I meant!”  
Everyone at the table snickers and Kid huffs and takes a drink from one of those dinky cartons of milk the school gives out. He stands up and slams his hands down on the table, which just causes some of them to laugh more. “Alright, now I’m really going to beat all of your asses!”

Out of the corner of Kid’s eye he sees Law look up from whatever he’s working on and look over at Kid. The corners of lips tug up. Kid is too distracted from hoping Law and nobody else heard the conversation at the table to notice there’s no lunch in front of Law.

* * *

Chemistry wasn’t so bad for Law. He found it interesting, and he was never too terribly challenged by math. He also knew very well that chemistry was vital in understanding the human body. Yeah, the class was pretty much a breeze for him. 

Another plus was the fact that the teacher usually let them pick their partners. Of course Law and Penguin always teamed up. Yeah, Penguin wasn’t too good at the mathematical components of the class but he was an aspiring doctor as well and put his best effort into things. And he had no problem with Law micromanaging the group projects they had to do from time to time. It was the perfect arrangement. Which was why it was a shock when the teacher announced that they wouldn’t be picking their partners for the upcoming project.

“Oh no”, Penguin whispered as the teacher started calling out partners. “Maybe this is because Kid and Heat barely do their projects when they’re together.”

“Of course Eustass-ya would fuck it up for everyone else.”, Law mumbles back as he rolls his eyes. It would suck not to work with Penguin, but he didn’t really mind anyone besides-

“Kid, you’re going to work with let’s see- Ah, you can work with Law.”, The teacher says aloud.

“What?”, Kid and Law say at the same time.

“That won’t be a problem will it?”, The teacher asks and before Kid can even open up his mouth to voice a complaint, the teacher is already moving on with the names. 

Law’s heart sinks. Just great. He really didn’t want to see Kid right now. He knew the loudmouth was going to somehow bring up what happened this morning. He clenches his fists and notices Penguin practically beaming next to him.

“Why are you so happy? Don’t you feel at least a little bit sorry for me?”, Law says dryly and Penguin just smiles more.

“Maybe you and Kid could get closer while you work on the project.”, Penguin whispers and Law’s eye twitches.  
“Not this again- I don’t like him. He’s annoying and an absolute idiot. I’d rather do the project alone.”, Law says as he pulls at the brim of his hat.

“You don’t mean that-”, Penguin says and they both look up when the teacher says to move with their partners.

“Just great..”, Law mumbles and Penguin pats him on the back and gives him a thumbs up before he picks up his stuff and moves before mouthing a “Good luck”.

Law runs a hand over his face. This is fine. He just won’t acknowledge what happened this morning. It was honestly all worse than it had looked after all. He felt fine now besides how tired he felt. He’s sure a headache will be an addition to that when he sees Kid walk over to him.

The redhead sits on the seat next to him, plopping his notebook on the desk.

“That asshole teacher. He must know I hate your guts and is trying to torment me.”, Kid says and Law rolls his eyes.

“Tormenting you? I’m pretty sure I’m getting the short end of the stick here Eustass-ya.”, Law says. He hesitates to look over at Kid. He really wasn’t mentioning it? He wasn’t even talking to Law unusually. Law feels a sweep of relief. Of course Kid forgot about it. Kid wasn’t the type to care about those types of things. He probably was used to picking his friends up off the floor when they got drunk at parties or knocked out in a fight. And him and Law weren’t even friends. Law almost felt stupid for thinking Kid even gave a damn about him anyways.

“Well what’s that supposed to mean?”, Kid asks and snaps Law out of his thoughts.

“Do you seriously even plan on helping out with the project?”, Law asks and isn’t surprised when Kid gives a shrug.

“Relax, it’s senior year. You can give up the good boy student act, you’re already getting into any college you want by now anyways.”, Kid says.

“I-”, Law starts but shakes his head. “Let me remind you that this is a class required for graduation Eustass-ya. So unless you want to stay in this school longer, you should start actually putting work in.”

“Yeah yeah whatever.”, Kid says as he rolls his eyes. “I’ll help with this dumb project.”

“Really?”, Law says with a raised eyebrow. He didn’t expect Kid to give in like that. 

“Don’t look so surprised asshole. We can work on it after school or whatever.”, Kid says with a shrug.

“Really? You normally don’t even do your homework.”, Law points out.

“Yes really, geez are you a broken record?”  
“Fine..We can go to your place after school tomorrow to work on it.”, Law says. 

“No- Let’s go to your place. I know Penguin and Killer are going to be fucking annoying. Literally.”, Kid says with a groan.

“I don’t want to hear about that..”, Law says honestly. “Fine. We can go to my place..But if my dad’s home, don’t talk to him.”

“Why would I do that? Every time I bump into him he still looks like he wants to kill me from that fight we had years ago.”

“Maybe if I tell him how much of an annoyance you still are to me, he’ll really do it.”, Law says with a slight smile and Kid rolls his eyes.

“Oh fuck off- You annoy me more than anything.”

Law is about to say something else, but is cut off at the sound of the bell followed by the kids packing their things.

“So tomorrow?”, Law says. 

“Tomorrow.”, Kid says with a nod.

“My address is-”

“Don’t even bother, I still know where your house is.”

“What do you mean?”, Law asks. When has Kid ever been to his house?

“You really don’t remember? Whatever- Nevermind. See you tomorrow.”, Kid says as he gets up. He’s packing up his things fast. He turns to Law, and Law frowns at how intense he’s looking at him. “Oh and Law, I haven’t forgotten about this morning asshole. I want to know what the hell is up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I dont care if Im using cliches, they got paired up together in a project and thats final- Also, Kid meets Corazon again next chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kid goes over to Law's house.

Eustass Kid has been over to Trafalgar Law’s house before.

It was stupid to have even brought it up the redhead realizes. It was years ago, and Law was barely awake when he had come over. It was no wonder why the dark haired man gave him a more than confused look.

You see, it was his mom’s idea. She was a kind person, unlike her son, and when she got a call from the school that her child had given a kid with cancer a black eye she was understandably upset. She had rattled on about how Kid was supposed to protect people in need or something like that. If he was honest, Kid sort of zoned out during her whole spiel and focused on the pattern of the kitchen floor he was looking down at instead. He really didn’t listen to his mom as a kid, and he kind of regrets it now that she’s not alive. But, Kid still thinks he wasn’t in the wrong about that particular scenario at all. Law wasn’t someone in need. Kid always knew he could handle himself despite whatever illness he had going on, but his mom saw differently. She didn’t know Law like Kid did.

It was bad enough Kid was getting an in-school suspension, but his mom decided to top off the shitty situation by dragging Kid over to Law’s house to thoroughly apologize. Kid had grumbled the whole time. It was lame to go and apologize to someone who you beat up fair and square. Especially when your mom was going with you. His mom wasn’t having it though, so when they drove there Kid shoved his hands in his pockets and followed his mother to the door that was up the apartment building’s stairs.

After a moment Corazon opened the door, Law’s father. Kid recognized him then. How could he not when Corazon had looked like he was about to strangle him when they were in the principal’s office. He was giving the same look to him then, but had allowed them to come in.

“Law’s in his room. He just had a chemo appointment so he’s pretty tired.”, Corazon had said stiffly. 

“I’m so sorry”, His mother had said and Kid huffed. She shouldn’t have to apologize for anything. And in his eyes he didn’t have to either. But with the way Corazon had glared at him and his mother nudged him he huffed and forced out some half baked apology that just caused Corazon’s frown to deepen.

“How about you go see if Law is up? Don’t wake him if he’s sleeping.”, His mother said and Corazon looked disapproving at the idea but Kid was already walking towards the room. He’d rather go hang out with the creep than stay in that room with them two looking at him like he had just murdered a kitten.

Kid found Law’s door pretty easily. There was a sign in Law’s handwriting that said “Please knock” on line paper that was taped to the door. Kid had rolled his eyes and turned the handle. He had peered into the room and stepped inside. Law was on the bed, asleep and pale. His eye was bruised and he looked small under all of the covers. Kid sighed and sat on one of the chairs in the room and looked around.

Law’s room was small, but it seemed to have a lot of stuff in it. There were some medical books scattered on the floor beside the bed, and even more books sat on a bookshelf in the corner of the room. Kid was sure Law must have read every book in there. Twice. The mushroom hatted kid was always reading at school, even getting in trouble for reading while the teacher talked. Kid had always hated the smartass. Who gets in trouble for reading anyways? If you asked him it was lame and warranted a punch.

But Law wasn’t awake to annoy at the time, so Kid stayed quiet and wondered if there were any pranks he could pull while he was alone in the other’s room. He about had an idea of one before he had heard Law mumble something. Kid had thought he had woken up but when he looked he saw the other was still asleep. The redhead looked closer and saw Law’s face was all pinched up, like the face you got when you ate something funny. Kid understood what it meant. He must have been having a nightmare.

“Oi Trafalgar- Wake up.”, Kid said as he nudged the other’s shoulder. Law just mumbled more in his sleep and curled up more.

"Lami..", He heard the mumble clear as day. Kid didn't get it at the time. Who the hell had bad dreams about lambs? 

"Hey- You're dreaming dumbass. No lambs are going to hurt you, I'll even make sure of it ok? Just stop whining.", He had said. Law's face softened at that and he fell right back into the quiet sleep he had before.

Kid sighs in relief and sits back down and realises what he just did and said. Why did he do that? Him and Law were enemies. Yeah, the bruise on his cheek and the shiner he gave Law told the world so. But Kid wasn't too worried. Law was asleep and no one else was around to hear what he said.

Yeah, he didn't mind protecting Law from dumbass nightmares, as long as no one knew of course. He went home with his mother shortly after and planned out what he was going to say to get under Law's skin when the boy came back to school.

* * *

"Cora-san", Law said as he entered the living room. His dad was on the couch flipping through the channels, and immediately looked up when he heard Law, a smile spreading on his face.

"Oh- I guess school is out already huh? How was it?", He asked. Law's smile twitches. Today fucking sucked.

"It was the same as usual.", Law said with a shrug which wasn't really a lie. Yeah he might have collapsed in the bathroom, and yeah he almost had a breakdown but everything else about the day was the same as usual. "The classes were a drag today, I should have brought another book with me."

"I thought you broke that habit of reading in class-", Corazon said with a laugh and Law just shrugged.

"I guess I just got better at hiding it."

"Well as long as you don't get in trouble for I don't care- There's nothing good on TV, want to get some pizza and rent a movie tonight?", Corazon asks. 

"Pizza.", Law says and tries not to grimace. He really didn't like the idea of it. He could handle a small piece of pizza but he knew Corazon's eyes would be watching him. There was no place to hide the parts he couldn't finish, and he almost gagged at the thought of throwing up again today.

"I have a lot of homework Cora-ya, maybe another time.", Law said. He wasn't lying. He did have a lot of homework, but he stood up late enough anyways to be able to finish it all without a problem. 

"Oh alright. I'll just order one anyways and you can take the pieces to your room-", Corazon says. He hides his disappointment but Law knows him well enough to see through it. He feels bad refusing the offer, but there were always other opportunities to hang out with his dad anyways. Yeah, things that didn’t involve food. "You did take a lot of APs again this year right? Make sure you're not overworking yourself-"

"I won't Cora-ya don't worry.", Law waves off. He's about to go to his room before he stops. He tries to contain his amused smile as he looks over at Corazon. "Oh- I have a group project to work on. My partner's coming over after school tomorrow so we can work on it."

"Oh- Who is it? You never bring anyone over anymore. Is it Penguin or Shachi?", Corazon asks. He loved playing host way too much for his own good. For someone he had claimed to hate kids before he met Law, he was always encouraging Law to invite his friends over way too often. Law guesses he had always worried that was a loner, but that wasn’t so.

"No. Someone else.", Law said.

"Who? Do I know them?"

"It's Eustass Kid.", Law said and wasn't surprised when his father nearly fell over from shock. Corazon looked downright furious at the mention of the redhead. 

"There's no way I'm letting that brat near you!"

* * *

School was a bore the next day. Kid got to school ten minutes late and pissed off the teacher by talking back when he asked for a tardy pass that Kid didn't have. In the back of his mind Kid wished Law had this class too. Last year they had a class with this same teacher, and Kid had drawn ]the teacher dressed up as a clown. The guy's name was Mr. Buggard but Kid had written "Buggy the Clown" on the top of the crude drawing which earned a muffled laugh from Law.

Law barely laughed around others. Kid barely even sees him crack a genuine smile, especially these days. It's always his smug smirks or his annoyed expression. It felt almost rewarding when Kid could make some comment that would get Law to have to put a hand up to quickly cover his mouth before he let out a quiet laugh or a small smile. Not that Kid liked those things about Law or anything. Yeah, he was only doing them to bring his guard down.

But Law wasn't in that class. Kid only had chemistry with the other since he decided to be a dumbass this year and take almost all AP classes. He wasn't sure why the teachers would even allow something like that to be honest, I mean, it couldn't be good for anyone. Even bookworm Trafalgar Law must be losing his mind from all those classes. Kid would be damned if he willingly took a class that required extra work from him. He was trying to take the easiest route out of this place.

Speaking of said dumbass, Kid still wasn't sure what he should do after school. He knows usually Law just walks to and from school, so will he be waiting for Kid? Because that wasn't going to happen. Kid would be damned if he was going to walk that distance. So after Kid finished his lunch, he made sure he sought after Law in the courtyard.

"Hey mushroom hat, we're giving you a ride home after school.", Kid said as he sat next to Law on the usual bench. It was starting to get more chillier outside, but still the asshole chose to stay outside and read his damn book. He looked surprised at what he said.

"What are you talking about? Who's we?"

"Well Killer of course, he's the one with the car. It can fit five people so we're also dropping off Heat, Wire, and Penguin-", Kid grumbled.

"That's six people Eustass-ya", Law said as he raised an eyebrow. “I know you’re not the smartest but I wasn’t aware you didn’t know how to count.”

"Oh shut up, I knew that. Your skinny ass can fit with Penguin in one seat anyways so don't even.", Kid said with a snort. He expected Law to make some comment back but for some reason the other had frowned and looked away.

"Hey, what the hells the matter? Are you scared of over crowded cars or something. Listen, I'll just fucking lay down across everyone in the backseat and crush you all if you really don't want to share a seat-", Kid says but Law’s expression doesn’t change. What the hell just happened? Kid just called Law skinny. It was what Law was after all. The man looked almost sickly that time Kid peeled him off the floor. Wasn't that supposed to be a compliment?

"I'm fine with squeezing in Killer's deathtrap Eustass-ya. You can leave now.", Law said as he looked back at his book. His voice was tight.

"Jesus christ what's with you lately. Your mood changes like the fucking weather.", Kid said as he took out a cigarette.

"It does not.", Law all but hisses out. "You can always go somewhere else if you want to whine."

"Whatever- I just came to tell you that message anyways asshole.", Kid said as he rolled his eyes. He looked at Law and frowned. There was something not right about the way Law was acting but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

"I meant what I said about spitting out what's wrong with you Law.", Kid says as he lights his smoke. Law's frown deepens.

"The only thing wrong with me right now is you bothering me.", He says and Kid rolls his eyes.

"You look like fucking death. You fainted in the bathroom, and were throwing up. What the hell is wrong with you? Do you even know? Does your dad know?", Kid asks and Law's eyes widen.

"Don't. Don't tell Cora-ya. Kid if you tell him-", Law says quickly, his voice icy. Kid gets a pit in his stomach. He knew something was wrong. And if Law wasn't even telling his idiot father he loved so much, then it must be bad.

"Ok- Law relax I won't.", He says as he puts up a hand. "What the hell is going on?"

"Nothing.", Law says. His hands gripping his book are shaking slightly and the smirk he's trying to pull off is twitching. "I have things under control."

"Bullshit. Which was why you were on the bathroom floor?", Kid asks and Law glares at him. 

"I didn't ask to play a game of twenty questions. If you have a problem with me or my habit then just-", Law says but stops.

"What? What fucking habit Law?", Kid asks but Law is already standing up and shoving his book in his bag. 

"I'm going to read somewhere quieter. Go fuck yourself Eustass-ya.", Law says as he starts briskly walking away. Kid narrows his eyes. A habit?

He looks down at his smoke. It was possible Law was getting into doing drugs. The other was swamped with hard classes and was probably stressed about getting into some school for doctors or whatever. It would explain the weight and how pale he looked, but it didn't seem right for some reason. 

"You better not have gotten into anything stupid..", He mumbles as he finishes his cigarette. Not like he was worried about Law or anything like that. Yeah, he’s sure he’ll figure this all out soon anyways.

* * *

When Law left the school he almost thought about just walking home. He still felt stupid for letting what he said slip to Kid. It just kind of happened. Kid was way too easy for Law to talk to, and Law suspected it was the stupid crush he had for the redhead. If he could crush those feelings he would. Now Kid was going to be even more annoying about finding out about Law's habit.

Law didn't know why he reacted like that to be honest. Kid called him skinny. So what? Didn't that just mean Law's efforts were working. But something tasted sour about the compliment. Law wasn't really skinny. He still hasn't been able to shave the fat at the edges off. Maybe he lost some weight but it was all there.

It's not like his habit was bad or anything. But, Kid would misunderstand it all. He'd call it things it's not and probably over react. Law had it under control. And he had his crush under control too. Which is why when he saw Kid waiting outside Killer's car in the parking lot, he walked over.

"There you are. Almost thought you were going to just walk straight home.", Kid says.

"I thought about it.", Law says honestly. He suddenly didn't feel so mad at the man anymore.

"Well you better get in before you change your mind-", Kid says and Law rolls his eyes and gets in the back where Penguin and Heat already were.

"Hey Law-", Penguin says with a wave.

"Hey. Starting to think I should have walked home.", He says dryly and Penguin laughs a bit.

"Shut up, aren't you glad you're getting a ride anyways?-", Kid says as he squeezes in the back as well. Law's eye twitches at how close he is.

"Not when I can barely move Eustass-ya."

"It is pretty cramped back here-", Penguin says nervously. "How about you sit on my lap Law. Law gawked.

"I'd crush you.", He said.

"Crush him? You're a fucking twig Law just do it-", Kid said and Law frowned. Why did he keep saying things like that? He huffs.

"Shut up. Penguin isn't that big, I don't want to hurt him.", Law says as he looks at Penguin. Penguin was skinny. The man was pretty short too. The last thing Law needed was to break one of his bones with all his weight.

"God damn it-", Kid said as he rolled his eyes and dragged Law onto his lap. Law yelps.

"Eustass-ya!"

"Killer start driving already-", Kid says as he places his hands away from Law. Law gasps as Killer starts driving, the movement making his unsteady on the other’s lap.

"There's no seatbelt!", Law hisses and Kid is like "Oh shut up, I'm not going to let you fly out the window-"

Law's heart was pounding as Killer seemed to slam down on the pedal. Law had always seen him drive fast into the parking lot but it was something different being inside the car while he did it. It also didn’t help that he was on Kid’s lap with no damn seatbelt. Law held onto Kid's shoulders, cursing when he falls against Kid as Killer makes a sharp turn.

"What the hell are you doing Killer?!", Kid says as he pulls Law off from against him. Penguin was barely holding his laughter next to them and Law shoots him a glare. Nothing about this was funny.

"Oh shut up and hold onto your boyfriend-", Killer calls out to the back of him as he continues driving and Kid sputters.

"Excuse me!-", Kid yells and Law feels his face heat up as the comment registers in his mind. He couldn't have heard that right, but before he can even think of something to say Killer slams on the brakes. Law blinks and looks out the window. They're in front of his apartment. If Corazon looked out the window and saw him climb out of a speeding car from Kid's lap he'd have a stroke.

"Get the hell out of my car.", Killer says as Law is already opening the door and climbing out.

"Gladly!", He hears Kid say as he climbs out too. He flips them off which earns a laugh from everyone in the car as Killer starts to drive away.

"Those assholes-", Kid says as he rubs the back of his neck. 

"Yeah. Remind me never to get in a car with you again.", He says. He tries not to think about how it felt to be on Kid's lap. How it felt when Kid held onto him so he didn't end up flying. He grips the straps of his book bag tightly. Those were dangerous thoughts he was not willing to entertain while Kid was still right there.

"Like I would do that again-", Kid says. "Now let's get this project over with. Don't tell me your dad is home-"

"He should be at work still. Come on.", Law says and Kid nods and follows the other to the apartment building, Kid looking around as Law leads him up the stairs and to the door. Law fishes out his keys from his pocket but before he can go to unlock the door, Corazon opens the door and Law nearly falls back in surprise.

"Cora-ya", Law says and Corazon grins.

"I got out of work early! Now, you actually brought him over huh?", He says as he gives Kid a look that can only be described as a look that can kill.

* * *

Kid was sure he was going to die right then and there. Not only did he just get out of a car after having fucking Trafalgar Law on his lap, but now he was sitting in his living room next to him and his father, his father not hiding the fact he'll kill Kid if he makes one wrong move.

"You know, you look like you haven't changed at all Kid-", Corazon says with a laugh but Kid knows what he means by that.

"Cora-ya, we need to start on our work.", Law grits out. Kid snorts. Law was embarrassed. He’d say something if he wasn’t in literal danger. Kid might be strong, but Law’s father was huge. Kid thinks Corazon could lift up his leg and easily stomp Kid under his shoe from how tall he is. Kid was convinced it was some sort of world record or something. 

"I just wanted to make sure our guest is comfortable.", Corazon says. He smiles earnestly at Law. "I haven't seen Kid since when was it- Oh right, that time you and Law had that little fight."

"Yeah-", Kid says with a swallow.

"Oh my god. Can you stop bullying Eustass-ya already?" Law says and Corazon laughs. The air in the room seems to get a little lighter.

"Fine for now. Go ahead- I'll make something for you guys to eat-", Corazon says as he waves them off. Kid blinks. That was it? He was getting off scott free?

"You don't have to Cora-ya..", Law says but Corazon grins.

"It's nothing- Go ahead and work.", Corazon says and he looks at Kid and his smile drops. "And Kid, if you ever put a hand on my son again I will kill you."

"Dad!", Law says. He pulls at his hat and grinds out "I could easily handle Eustass-ya in a fight anyways. Come on-" 

"Hey!- We both know that's not true!", Kid calls after as Law starts walking to his room. He looks at Corazon and gulps. "Not like I would fight Trafalgar. It'd be too easy."

He quickly shoves his hands in his pockets and follows Law to his room, not wanting to stay alone in the room with Corazon.

"I apologize for my father. Although it's funny seeing how scared of him you are.", Law says with a smirk and Kid rolls his eyes and looks around the room.

"I'm not scared of that clown.", Kid grumbles.

"Don't call my father that. And get your work out already. I hope you know I'm not doing all the work for this project.", Law says as he rolls his eyes.

"Yeah yeah- If I thought that I wouldn't have shown up.", Kid says. He sits on the bed next to Law. The room almost looked the same as the last time he was there. There were more books scattered around, and some additional posters on the wall, but it wasn't all that different. The stuffed bear still say upright by the pillow on the bed, like it had been purposefully say up there. Kid almost smiles at the image of Law sitting the stuffed toy up after he gets out of bed.

Wait a minute. Why was he thinking shit like that? He really has been spending too much time with Law. He sighs and takes his jacket off, putting it to the side.

"Do you wear that thing even at home.", Kid asks as he points to his jacket. Law frowns.

"It's comfortable.", Law says simply. He takes out his notebook. "I think if I work on these requirements for the project and you work on those we can finish this-" 

"Yeah yeah.", Kid huffs as he takes out his notebook and pencil.

* * *

Things were going fine.

Yeah, Law was a little taken aback by the fact Eustass Kid was sitting in his room next to him on his bed, but he was too busy with working to dwell on that. No, what he was more worried about anyways was what Kid had said earlier. He frowns down at his work at the thought. What the hell was he supposed to say to stop the nosy redhead?

“Trafalgar- Look over my work.”, Kid says as he hands him his notebook. Law looks over it. There were some minor mistakes but he quickly grabs his pencil and erases them and writes in the write phrasing, not stopping even when Kid grumbles something about Law being a know-it-all.

“There. You can start putting it on the slideshow now.”, Law says.

“I don’t have my laptop with me.”, Kid says and Law rolls his eyes.

“Just use mine.”, Law says as he points to the laptop on his desk. He wasn’t worried. He cleared his history after every time he visited forums where people with similar habits would post about their tips and progress. He rarely visited those. The pictures of people with their skeleton bodies always made him feel sick. Just seeing the words they used to describe their habits made him feel sick too. He would always roll his eyes at the way they named their habit. Ana this, Mia that. It was stupid, but he couldn’t deny that there were some good tips buried in those forums. He had bookmarked some of the pages.

“I better not find anything weird on here.”, Kid grumbles as he opens the laptop and Law snorts.

“I’m not a pervert like you Eustass-ya.”, Law says as he continues to organize his research.

“You don’t know me-”, Kid says as he looks at the laptop.

“After being stuck in school with you for years, I think I unfortunately do.”, Law says. He gets no response, but he’s too busy reading over what he had written to really think about it. He doesn’t notice the long stretch of silence that goes by, Just the faint sounds of Kid clicking around on his laptop filling the air.

When Law is satisfied with his work he glances over at Kid and frowns at the look on his face. Kid looked really serious, and Law could have sworn he paled.

“Everything ok there Eustass-ya?..”, Law asks. Was he really having that much trouble with the project. Maybe this was going to be harder than he had thought. Kid looked over at him and opened his mouth but didn’t say anything. Just what in the world had the great Eustass Kid so speechless?

Before Law can question it, the door suddenly opens and Corazon looks at the two of them and smiles. “Dinner’s ready. You should come downstairs and eat it.”

“Sounds great.”, Kid says, but he’s staring at Law like he just saw a ghost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ngl, I made this at 4am last night. I don't remember writing it too well, but I did just remember Law and Kid have a character song together and I am cracking up guys headlinerssss.
> 
> Anyways I love protective father Corazon hh we all know he'd be protective of Law still if he was alive-


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kid realizes what's going on and wants to fix it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a reminder that Law and Kid are not experts on mental illness so of course they're going to say questionable/wrong things. This isn't going to be one of those stories where the eating disorder magically cures itself because that is not how it works but god I wish-

Kid didn’t really know much about mental illness. He wasn’t really sure if what he saw was considered one, but it should be. He didn’t know anybody with one so he wasn’t sure what to do. At least, he thought he didn’t know anyone with one.

Yeah, the only time he’s heard about mental illness was this mandatory health class they made the freshman class take in high school. It was boring as all fuck, but Kid was sitting in the desk behind Trafalgar Law so Kid always made his own fun. The aspiring surgeon even looked bored in that class. He would always open a book and place it on his lap, looking down and reading it as the teacher droned on in the front with some boring presentation. 

Yeah, Kid was pretty sure he was making some good ol classic paper airplanes the class the teacher was talking about mental illness. Yada yada depression. That’s all he remembers from that presentation if he was honest. He does remember scribbling something on a piece of paper before folding it and throwing it straight at the back of Law’s head. It was honestly pointless to shape it into a plane shape since Law was only about a foot away, but he didn't really care about that. What he did care about was the way Law would look up from his book and then turn and glare at Kid before he bent and picked up the paper off the floor. Kid grinned when he heard the rustling sound of Law unfolding the paper.

“Stop reading in class nerd.”, He had written. Not really his best, but he was so bored that he had needed something to poke the other about. Law took out a pen, clicking it open and scribbling something down. The boy had crumpled the paper in his hands before throwing it back at Kid. Kid caught it in his hands with a grin and when he unfolded it he blinked at what he saw. 

“At least I’m learning something unlike you.”, It said in Law’s slightly scribbly handwriting. Next to it is a crude drawing of a hand with the middle finger up. Kid glared at the back of Law’s head. He didn’t even have to see Law’s face to know he had that damn smirk on his face.

Yeah, maybe he should have actually listened in that class instead of messing with Law. Maybe he would have known just what the hell he was supposed to do now.

Law was supposed to be the cool headed one. He was always calm, rattling on about how you can’t just run into a problem without assessing it whenever Kid tried to solve his problems with his fists. I mean, the man was supposed to be a damn doctor. So why did he have shit about starving yourself bookmarked on his laptop?

Kid didn’t mean to snoop honestly. He just wanted to type in the website they did their presentations on for school, but he set his arm on the damn keyboard and must have hit a key that pulled up the bookmarks in the browser. Kid had huffed, and was about to complain to Law about how his laptop was stupid but his words died out when he read over them.

The first couple were normal enough. College admissions sites and scholarship offers. It’s what he expected to see from the scholar honestly, until he saw the saved sites below those. They were some types of forums. Kid looked up and saw Law still focused on his work. Kid looked back at the laptop and clicked on one of the links. He didn’t expect to see what he saw.

Kid read over the words and couldn’t really grasp what he was reading. Tips about not eating and skipping meals. Tips on how to appear to be eating in front of others when you’re really not. What the fuck. Just what the hell was this? Why did Law have something like this saved on his damn laptop. Kid clicked around the site and felt sick at what he saw. Pictures of skeleton bodies and awful captions about losing weight. This wasn’t some normal weight loss forum. This was sick and wrong.

Kid looked up at Law. He was still in his jacket that basically covered his whole body, but Kid remembers damn well how he looked when he was on the bathroom floor. He remembers his toothpick arms and t-shirt that looked too big on the man. He had looked sickly. Sickly like the people in those photos. Kid exited out of the website just as the door opened and Law’s father said something about dinner. It felt like a joke, but he managed to say something along the lines of “Sounds great.” Law didn’t say anything, his expression souring. He looked at Kid and looked confused. Kid must have been showing just how fucking confused he was himself.

It was starting to piece together in his mind, but he really didn’t like the picture that was forming. Trafalgar Law might have an eating disorder. At least, he thinks that’s what it’s called. He knows there’s words like anorexia and bulimia but he really doesn’t know the difference between them, and honestly it didn’t matter to him. If Law really was that sick, he had to do something. He didn’t have a damn clue what must be leading to Law making himself sick in the school bathroom but he had to say something.

But he didn’t say anything. They were at the table, plates of food in front of them.

“Notice I made your favorite Law?”, Corazon asks with a smile. It was fried fish with some mashed potatoes on the side. It actually looked pretty good.

“It looks great Cora-ya. Thanks.”, Law says with a smile. It’s tight and forced but Corazon doesn’t notice and smiles as he sits down with them.

Maybe Kid should be telling Corazon about what he had found. Yeah, Corazon clearly still had a grudge on him, but he obviously cared a lot about his son. He was an adult, so ideally he should know what to do. But Kid was eighteen and he didn’t know what the hell to do either. He remembers the way Law had looked at him when he mentioned telling Corazon about what happened in the bathroom. It was no wonder why now. 

Corazon asks how the project is going and Law says it’s going ok nonchalantly. “It’s mostly just busy work honestly.”, He says as he takes a piece of the fish and eats it. Kid hopes Law proves that he’s deadly wrong. He hopes he’ll eat all the food on his plate and that it was just all a misunderstanding. But Law doesn’t do that. He takes small bites and chews slowly for long times. Kid tries not to stare. He didn’t know what the hell to do.

“Well, that’s school for you.”, Corazon says. “Do you think it will get done today?”

“We just have to put everything on the slides. We can just finish that online.”, Law says. 

“Yeah.”, Kid says. But he couldn’t just go home after this and pretend he saw nothing. He needed to talk to Law. “But we should discuss it before I go.”

“Yeah..”, Law says slowly. He looks at Kid and frowns a bit. “We’ll do just that.”

“Alright- If Kid needs to come over again that’s fine too.”, Corazon says as he shrugs and Kid is too focused on Law pushing around the food on his plate to notice that the man is starting to not hate him so much anymore.

“Uh yeah thanks.”, Kid finds himself saying. When he looks back at Law he sees he’s already up by the garbage can, the sound of his fork scraping against the plate. 

“Thanks Cora-ya, we should keep working though”, Law says and Corazon smiles and is like “Well alright- I’ll be in the living room.”

“Come on Eustass-ya.”, Law says and Kid just gets up and follows the other back to his room. When they’re inside Kid swallows. He had to say something. If he didn’t this would just keep going on. He didn’t want Law to waste away like those terrible pictures he saw. And he knew Law would just keep going if he didn’t say anything.

“What is up with you Eustass-ya? You’re not usually so quiet..”, Law says. There’s a hint of amusement in his voice but Kid knows him well enough to see that he’s nervous. He must already know that Kid knows.

“Law-”, Kid says. He hardly calls him that name instead of Trafalgar, but for some reason it seemed right to say it now. “How long has this been going on?”

“What are you talking about?”, Law asks. The corners of his mouth tug down. Kid sighs.

“Come on, you’re too smart to play dumb like this.”, Kid says. He curses. “That thing you said about a habit- It was all about this wasn’t it?”

“This? I don’t know what you’re-”

“Why aren’t you eating?”, Kid spells it out. Law flinches at the words. His eyes narrow.  
“I am eating Eustass-ya. This is ridiculous. Let’s just get back on this project already instead of your little theories.”, Law tries to dismiss but Kid sits on the bed next to him. He wants to shake Law by the shoulders. If this was anyone else he'd knock some sense into them. But this was Law. The one he’d pester and saw as his equal. But this was barely the Law he knew. Or maybe it was, and he just hasn’t been seeing it. Either way, he wanted to do this right. He wanted to make things right.

“I saw your bookmarks- That site. Law what the hell are you thinking? That time you were throwing up-”, Kid tries to get through the other and Law grits his teeth.

“Why are you looking through my laptop?”, Law hisses. “And I was sick that day. I must have caught a bug the day before. What do you want from me?”

“That’s- Law you said you got sick from something Luffy gave you.”, Kid recalls and Law looks like the redhead just slapped him. This was all sorts of messed up.

“I- Yeah. That’s what I-”, Law says. Kid can see the gears working already. How long has this asshole been spinning these webs of lies? 

“Jesus christ- Don’t lie to me.”, Kid says. “I don’t know about all this but- I can’t just let you continue whatever this is.”

“I’m not some anorexic person.”, Law says bitterly. He clenches his fists. “What I do is my own business. I know what I’m doing Eustass-ya.”

“Obviously not! You fucking collapsed!”, Kid says. He can feel his rising anger. He thinks somewhere in a textbook it would tell you not to yell at a sick person like this, but Kid was no expert. And as much as he didn’t want to admit it, the way Law was deflecting all of this was starting to make him a little more than uneasy.

“That was just a mistake! I know what to do now, it won’t happen again.”, Law says as if what he’s doing is completely reasonable.

“Law- I’m not letting you waste away!”, Kid says.

“I’m not wasting away! Just because I’m losing a little weight-”

“If you don’t fix this I’m telling Corazon.”, Kid says and as soon as the words leave his lips he knows it’s a low blow. Law suddenly goes quiet, the angry look on his face turning into something ugly. He looked scared. Kid isn’t sure if he’s ever seen the other scared, but he didn’t like it.

“Don’t tell Cora-ya.”, Law says. “Kid, really, do not tell my father.”  
“Law-”, Kid says but Law keeps talking.

“He wouldn’t understand. You don’t understand- This isn’t serious like those other people. I know how to control it ok? Corazon will freak out-”, Law says. Kid doesn’t think he’s aware of how much he’s shaking. 

“Ok- Listen, calm down. I won’t tell him.”, Kid quickly says. Anything to get Law to stop looking like Kid was about to rip him apart. “I just- We need to figure this out alright?”

“Right.”, Law says. He takes his hat off and holds it tightly in his hands. “Figure this out.”

“Yeah- You can sit with me at lunch. Penguin’s always there anyways. You two are friends right? I’ll help you start eating normally again or something.”, Kid reasons. He’s making the plan up in his head as he speaks. Right. All he needed was to get Law eating right? This wouldn’t be too far. Law was going to be ok.

“That- I’m not some little kid.”, Law says. The bitterness is seeping back into his voice. “I don’t need a fucking babysitter.”

“I know- Listen Trafalgar, I’m not trying to fucking shame your or anything- Is it so bad I don’t want you to fucking die?”, Kid finds himself saying and Law looks shocked.

“Eustass-ya..”, Law says.

“Listen- Just come to lunch tomorrow ok?”, Kid asks. He prepares himself for Law to refuse. He would drag the other over to the table if he had to. But Law sighs, a defeated look on his face before he puts his hat back on and pulls down at the front of it.

“Fine.”, He says simply. “If it’ll make you stop freaking out over nothing.

* * *

Law didn’t cry when Kid left. His eyes stung and it felt like there was a lump in his throat but he didn’t cry. He pressed the palms of his hands against his eyes and took a breath. This was all fine.

Sure, Kid found out about his habit but it wasn’t anything Law could fix. He’d convince Kid he wasn’t like those others. He could eat tomorrow. Yeah, he’d eat lunch and that would be it. He doesn’t think he could stand the thought of Kid seeing him as some weak fragile thing. He must be disgusted. He must think Law was sick in the head.

When his tears stop threatening to fall he stands up and takes his coat off, setting it on his bed as he goes over the mirror in the corner of his room. It’s a full length mirror, and it’s not too bad, but Law rarely used it. In fact, he mostly points the reflective surface away towards the wall so he doesn’t have to see himself. He sighs and reluctantly pulls it over so it’s pointing at himself. 

He can’t deny that he looks like shit. His eyes still had those annoying bags and they were now slightly red because of those damn tears. But something in his mind told Law that something else wasn’t right. His shirt was too loose. If Law recalled correctly, this shirt had always fit him perfectly fine. But now, he could see his collar bones peeking out from near the collar. He pulled the shirt up and saw his sides. He could see his ribs now.

He tries to ignore how fucked up he knew this was. Yeah, he was starving himself but he could always stop. Maybe he was taking it a little too far. He runs his hands along the rib bones and a wave of nausea passes through him. This was alright. He’ll just start eating lunch again. It wouldn’t be hard at all.

He pulls his shirt back down and puts a hand on his cheek. If you asked him he still had fat that wouldn’t fucking go away, but maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. There was nothing really special about him besides his book smarts, he knew that. He thought maybe if he was skinny he’d be a better person, but of course he fucked that up too. He shakes his head. He thinks about eating lunch tomorrow and his stomach twists at the thought of losing control over this schedule he has kept up. He gets alarmed at that thought. He’s not like others who did this, he really wasn’t.

He turns the mirror back towards the wall and goes to his bed and lays down. He’d show Kid tomorrow.

* * *

When Kid got home he did some research. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be searching up if he was honest. After a couple of scrapped ideas he settled with just searching up eating disorders. One of the first links was one about the different types and he frowned as he read the different types. He didn’t really get it still. Why the hell would someone do that to themselves? Was Law really obsessed with his body image?

Kid had sighed and turned off his phone. From what he had read it sounded like Law had some sort of anorexia, but he wasn’t a doctor and he didn’t know what the hell was going inside Law’s head. All the sources he read said he should tell someone who knew what they were doing about it, but he couldn’t do that to Law. Wouldn’t they ship him off to some sort of facility or something? His heart sinks at the thought. Law was working really hard to get into a good college and become a surgeon. Wouldn’t him getting sent away ruin all that? He sighs. Whatever. Him and Law would fix this. He just needed to get Law to eat. 

He tries not to think about Law and what he saw on the laptop as he falls asleep.

* * *

Law dreaded the next morning, but it still came. He pealed himself off of his bed and stood up, getting ready to start the day. He felt exhausted from how little sleep he got that night. He couldn’t sleep because of how many scenarios he thought might happen the next day. He thought about just telling Kid to flat out fuck off. He didn’t need to be monitored or looked after, especially by his stupid crush. But he knew he couldn’t do that. He knew Kid could tell Corazon what was happening at any time.

Law wonders how Corazon would react if he knew about his habits. He isn’t sure if he would be mad or disappointed, and he didn’t want to find out. Corazon gave up everything to get Law help and for him to be cured. He had been the only one there for Law when he was young. If he found out Law was throwing away his health by his own choosing. Law shakes his head and goes downstairs. He pours himself a cup of coffee and sees Corazon walking around and getting for work.

“Morning Law”, Corazon says with a smile.

“Morning Cora-ya.”, Law says as he sits down with his cup of coffee. He takes a sip from the bitter liquid. He didn’t feel like putting anything in it today.

“Are you sleeping ok Law?..You look tired.”, Corazon says as he stops in front of the table. Law waves him off.

“I slept fine Cora-ya.”, Law says.

“Well you know if you ever needed a day off to catch up on sleep, I’d look the other way.”, Corazon says. “You’ve never really missed a day anyways, you could use the break. You look sort of pale-”

“I don’t need one, but thanks.”, Law says. He’s uneasy by the worry Corazon is showing. He needs to stop making things so obvious, Corazon didn’t need any more stress on his life.

“Alright- I’ll see you later Law.”, Corazon says with a wave and Law nods.

“See you later dad.”, He says and when the man leaves Law sighs and looks at his coffee before he drinks it all. Maybe he should just stay home. His grades were all more than fine so he didn’t really have much to worry about. He could see all the homework he owed online anyways. But he wasn’t sure if that would set Kid off either. 

It felt sour knowing Kid had something over his head. And the worst part is, Kid wasn’t doing this all to be mean or torment Law. In a weird way Law wishes that was the case. His mind always had wandered to scenarios where someone, anybody, would notice how fucked up things were getting for him. Of course, he never actually wanted that to happen. He would hate the thought of being pitied. But now, Kid knew, and he had to fix it. He gets up and puts the cup in the sink, before he gets his bookbag and starts heading to school.

* * *

Law tried to focus on his classes, he really did. Usually he would read between every chance he got, but he couldn’t focus on the words on the pages today. So, he decided he’d be an actual good student and listen to whatever the teachers were droning on about. But that didn’t go so well either. His mind kept wandering to Kid and the words they said yesterday and the agreement they made.

He wonders if Kid will treat him differently when he sees him. Law frowns. He doesn't know what he’d do if Kid stopped with his banter and snarky comments. As much as Law tells Kid he loathes it, he really enjoys it. Probably too much for his own good with the feelings he’s gained. Law grips his pencil as he continues with his school work.

By the time the bell rings for lunch Law’s stomach is doing flips. This was fine. All he had to do was play it cool. He was used to hiding his eating habits anyways. This would be no different. He makes his way to the lunchroom and goes over to Kid’s table. Kid isn’t there yet, but he sees Penguin and Killer talking to Apoo and Hawkins. He sits down.

“Law!”, Penguin says with a smile. “You hardly sit with us anymore-”

“I just wanted a change of pace for today.”, Law says with a shrug.

“Oh, I see what you mean.”, Penguin says with a thumbs up. Law’s eye twitches.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to refer to Penguin-ya.”, Law says and Apoo laughs.

“It’s ok Law, I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you here.”, Apoo says and also throws a thumbs up. His eye twitches. For the life of him, he didn’t know how these idiots found out about his crush. But like hell he’d admit that to them.

“I want to make it clear. I’d rather get run over by a truck than be anywhere near Eustass-ya.”, Law says dryly.

“Then why are you here?”, Killer asks which causes Penguin and Apoo to have to hold back their laughter. Law is about to say something before he hears a voice say “What the hell are you idiots talking about now?”

Law blinks and sees Kid sit down next to him, two trays of lunch in his hand. How he managed to do that, Law’s not sure. Each student was only supposed to get one tray, and even then you can’t seconds. Law only knows because he’s witnessed the countless attempts Luffy has made in doing so. That poor kid got so many detentions because of how many times he tried to sneak more food that his older brother Ace would start packing him an extra lunch.

“Oi Kid, got your boyfriend a lunch?”, Heat asks and Kid narrows his eyes at him.

“Haha very funny, it’s almost like you want my fist in your face-”, Kid says as he shakes his fist which causes some laughs. Kid huffs.

“I owed Trafalgar a favor is all-”, Kid said as he shrugged and started eating. The redhead glanced over at Law. 

“Thank you so much Eustass-ya.”, Law said, not even attempting to hide the sarcasm in his voice. Kid rolls his eyes.

“Fuck you too.”, He says and Law almost smiles in relief. Kid wasn’t treating him differently besides the way he brought him food. If Law didn’t have to eat the garbage food in front of him he might even have been enjoying himself. But, the tray is still there, and he picks up the school provided plastic spork and frowns at the so called meal.

In reality, it’s just school pizza and some soggy fries on the side. You know, the kind that obviously had been frozen and heated up? He picked at the fries with his utensil and frowns at how soggy the fries seemed. Nobody noticed the way he picked at his food, well nobody besides Kid.

Kid would talk to his friends, making some chatter about how he had helped Killer fix his car yesterday and how he almost had enough to buy one for himself. But Law wasn’t stupid. He’d see the way Kid would occasionally glance at him. He was expecting Law to eat.

Law takes a small bite from the pizza. Yeah, he could do this. Maybe he could even hide some of those fries in his pocket and throw them away later when Kid wasn’t looking. Anything to get himself to eat as less as he possibly could.

When Kid is bickering with Apoo and Hawkins at god knows what Law quickly takes a handful of the fries and is about to shove them in his coat pocket but just as he grabs them Kid looks over at him and Law hopes he didn’t look as guilty as he was. He hesitantly drops the handful. Kid is practically staring now. Isn’t he worried about the rumors about them two? He’s calling too much attention to him. Law takes one of the fries and eats it in one bite. Kid seems to be satisfied with that because he goes right on bickering.

Law chews at the fry. It tastes like soggy potato with a hint of salt. It was bad enough Law was already a picky kid before he had taken on the habit. He would have refused to eat these fries anyways. But he knew Kid would see him not eating as a sign of something Law definitely did not have. Law forces himself to eat more. If he just did this quickly, he could get this over with.  
“How is your and Kid’s project going Law?”, Penguin asks. “I got partnered up with Drake. He’s super serious and quiet but that’s not as bad as getting paired with Kid I think.”

“Hey I’m literally right here penguin asshole!”, Kid says irritatedly and Killer quickly puts an arm around Penguin.

“Hey don’t yell at my boyfriend unless you want to have a problem-”, Killer says. Law would have made a comment to spurr the two to argue more if he didn’t feel so sick right now. Why was this so difficult? He had control of his habit. So why couldn’t he just eat?

He forces himself to take a large bite of the pizza. He swears he feels like he’s going to throw up. He chews and chews, but his body has a hard time swallowing the disgusting thing. God, he must have really fucked up his diet with all of this food he’s having. How is he supposed to have dinner with Corazon tonight if he already ate so much? He forces himself to eat more fries.

“The project is going just fine Penguin-ya.”, Law says, suddenly remembering the man had asked him a question. “If Drake doesn’t help you with your project just tell me. I’ll help you out with it..and have a talk with him.”, Law says. He tries to stay calm despite how bad he felt like he needed to throw up.

“Oh- No he’s helping out. I guess I’m just nervous to ask for clarification on things since he’s so serious all the time. Kind of sounds stupid now that I say it aloud.”, Penguin says and laughs a bit. Law hears Kid and Killer still semi arguing. He thinks he hears his name in their argument but he isn’t too sure. He suddenly stands up and before he can process he just did that, he mumbles something about being right back before he quickly leaves the lunch room. 

He suddenly doesn’t care if Kid would disapprove of this. He was going to be sick, it wasn’t his fault. He barely remembers reaching the bathroom on the second floor but when he gets there he pushes the door open to one of the stalls and steps in. It takes him less than a minute for him to start throwing up.

He’s a doctor. He’s not stupid. He knows that realistically, a large portion of the calories he ate had already been absorbed into his body. He knows that throwing up the food he had eaten was not going to help. The worst part of it all though was, in the back of his mind he knew what this was. His body and mindset has become so used to not eating. He just wanted to show Kid he was normal, but he knew he just ended up proving to himself how fucked up he was. He didn’t control this at all. He grips the edges of the toilet when he’s done. He doesn’t know why but he’s started to cry.

Angry tears fall from his eyes and he doesn’t move to wipe them away. He hasn’t cried in a while. He used to cry after waking up from nightmares, but he hasn’t done that in a long time. It felt wrong to cry over himself, especially when he was the one who put himself into this situation.  
“Trafalgar?”, He hears someone say cautiously as the door to the bathroom opens. Law doesn’t bother to move to lock the stall. He hears the footsteps get closer and the door creaks open.

“Fuck.”, He hears Kid say. He doesn’t sound angry. He doesn’t even sound disgusted. He reaches out a hand. “Come on, get off from the floor you dumbass.”

Law hesitantly takes his hand and Kid easily helps him up. 

“Why did you do that?”, Kid asks. 

“I don’t know.”, Law answers honestly. He hates the way his voice sounds as some more tears fall. He really was a fucking mess.

* * *

Kid knew something was wrong as soon as Law had stood up from the table. Kid barely heard him mumble something about being back before he practically bolted off.

“Oh no..Do you think he’s sick? He’s been looking pale.”, Penguin says as they watch after the man. Kid swallows and looks at Law’s plate. A lot of the food was gone.

“I don’t know.”, Kid says. He stands up. “I have to take a piss anyways. I’ll check on the bastard.”

“Aww, how cute. Kid checking up on his boyfriend.”, Apoo coos mockingly and Kid is too distracted by the fact that Law might be making himself puke to come up with anything to say back and as he quickly leaves and makes his way to the second floor bathroom. He hopes he isn’t too late as he opens the door, but the sounds of painful retching followed by the wet sound of vomit made him cringe.

Kid stood by the door. He heard Law’s ragged breaths as he caught his breath and didn’t know what the hell to do. This was worse than he had thought. He thought Law would just start eating again and that would be it, but he guesses that’s not how it worked at all.

“Trafalgar.”, He says. He doesn’t give a shit how lame the worry in his voice sounds right now. His friend was sick and needed his help. He goes to the only closed stall and opens it. His heart clenches at what he sees.

He’s never seen Law cry before. Not even after they had fought after a kid. Law was the one who’d flip people off and didn’t let anything people say get to him. When did things get this bad? And why did Kid barely notice?

He reaches out a hand to help him up without hesitation. He almost expects Law to refuse the offer but he takes it, and Kid helps him off the floor. He asks why Law did it, and his heart almost breaks at the way Law says he doesn’t know.

This was something serious. Something he couldn’t fix on his own. He sees Law wiping at his eyes. The poor guy looks embarrassed. Kid doesn’t know how to tell him that it’s ok, and he doesn’t think less of him, so he reaches out and hugs Law.

He feels stupid immediately after he does it, but Law doesn’t pull away. He’s small in his arms, and it makes Kid hug him tighter without meaning to.

“Listen Trafalgar- We’re going to fix this alright?”, Kid says. Law just nods wordlessly. He actually hugs back.

Yeah, Kid knew he couldn’t fix this alone. He sighs and knows Law is going to hate him forever for what he’s about to do, but that’s ok as long as it means Law will start to get better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the nice comments and all the support! This is the longest fanfic I've made to be honest and I'm slowly getting back into the one piece fandom so this has been nice 8) Also, I've been posting nearly everyday for this fic so far but I think I want to take a break and start drawing again and maybe start watching Wano-
> 
> Add me on discord if you wanna talk about KidLaw or whatever: Kerbe#6927


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Corazon recalls how he adopted and took in Law, and Kid prepares to talk to someone close to Law

Donquixote Corazon Rosinante never wanted kids.

I mean, could you blame them? They just seemed loud, messy, and like a lot of work. Corazon never wanted that type of responsibility in his life. He didn’t see himself as a kind or caring person. After the things he’s been through he thought he would be unfit to be a dad. But that didn’t seem to stop his older brother at all.

If Corazon was honest, he really hated his brother. Ever since he saw Doflamingo steal one of their dad’s guns from the safe and shoot him, it was hard to view him as anything but a monster. Doflamingo had made Corazon swear not to tell anybody. He said they’d make it look like a suicide.

“Mom just died anyways, of course it’d make sense he’d do it.”, Corazon remembers his brother saying in a hushed tone. Corazon was crying at the time. Doflamingo still held the gun in his hand as he explained his plan and Corazon was so frightened that he could do nothing but nod and go along with it.

So with careful precision they had cleaned the gun of Doflamingo’s fingerprints, and put it next to their father’s corpse on the bed. It was almost like Doflamingo had been planning it. Corazon still remembers the sickly smell of the two dead bodies in the room, and the image of the blood. He had lost both of his parents that day, and in his eyes, he also lost his brother.

Corazon and Doflamingo lived on their own after that. They had a sort of stand in guardian that wouldn’t do much to watch over them as long as Doffy made sure to pay them some of their enormous inheritance.

Life should have been ok. Doflamingo would always make sure they were more than comfortable. Their father had always been against the family living luxuriously, but it seemed to be what Doflamingo had always wanted.

“Aren’t things better like this little brother?”, Doflamingo had asked one day. Corazon just nodded. He didn’t really have the voice to talk to his brother those days. In fact he became practically mute. It made Doflamingo upset, but because he thought it was his father’s fault.

“If father hadn’t let mother die you would be ok.”, Doflamingo had slurred bitterly. Corazon remembers walking into the kitchen and seeing his brother with a bottle of wine in his hand. It was practically empty. Doflamingo was only fifteen at the time. Corazon didn’t say anything. He just watched his brother throw the bottle against the wall and he watched the glass shatter and fall to the floor.

Yeah, he knew he needed to leave. So as soon as he turned seventeen he left home without a word and joined the army.

Maybe it wasn’t the best decision he had made. He honestly wasn’t sure why he did it. Maybe he just wanted to do something good in his life. To not turn out like his brother. But when he was there killing people he didn’t feel like a hero at all really. During his time away he thought a lot about his brother and their lives. Maybe he had misjudged Doflamingo. Yeah, he had killed their father, but they were so young back then. Maybe he regretted it now. Corazon felt so alone those days that he’d gladly try again with his brother if it meant he could have somebody in his life. 

Corazon wrote to Doflamingo before he quit the military. He wasn’t sure what to write, but he ended up making a letter about how he was sorry he left without saying anything. He hesitantly added how he missed his brother. He wasn’t sure if that last part was true, but he knew it was what Doflamingo wanted to hear.

To Corazon’s surprise, Doflamingo had welcomed him back with open arms. As soon as Corazon knocked on the door with his suitcase next to him, Doflamingo had opened it up and greeted Corazon with a hug.

“My dear little brother-”, Doflamingo had said and Corazon smiled. Maybe his older brother had really changed. Maybe he could finally have a home to return to again. He hugged his older brother back.

Doflamingo had let him into the horse, directing a maid to pick up his suitcase behind him. 

“I missed you too little brother. I was quite lonely while you were gone.”, Doflamingo said and Corazon felt bad. It was unlike Doflamingo to say something like that. He opened his mouth, he had to say something, but he was interrupted by a sudden yell.

“He’s here!”, He heard and he turned and saw some little kids peering into the room. One Of them was a little girl with a big bow in her hair. How the hell did kids get in here. He looked at Doffy, expecting him to kick the kids out but to his surprise he was smiling.

“Ah- I was about to mention it. Since you’ve been gone, I adopted some children.”, He had said with a wave. Corazon was shocked to say the least. He knew his brother had grown some sort of infatuation with the idea of family after their parents died, but he didn’t know it had grown to this. He had reluctantly followed his brother along the house as the man showed him all of the children he had acquired. They first met Baby who was a five year old girl who seemed terrified when Corazon would look at her. Doflamingo had nonchalantly mentioned that the poor girl’s mother dropped her off at the woods and had left her there.

“I guess she was hoping the girl would die, but some people found her. Now she has a home here with me. Isn’t that great little brother.”, Doflamingo had simply said and patted Baby’s head. The girl just giggled, not even bothered that Doflamingo had basically dug up old wounds. She held onto his pink furred coat and Corazon frowned.

Corazon met more of the children after that. He met Buffalo who was in the kitchen scarfing food from the fridge down, and Dellinger who was only two years old and kept saying “Glub glub”. Corazon was surprised to see Doflamingo had even adopted a teenager. His name was Gladius and when Doflamingo had opened the door he shouted something about getting out of his room but quickly grew quiet and spoke apologies when he saw it was Doflamingo, a gun clearly hidden behind his back. Corazon had gawked and damn nearly said something but his older brother had laughed it off. “He’s old enough to have a gun anyways.”, He had dismissed. 

This was all wrong. There were too many kids in this house. There were too many kids, and Corazon knew damn well they all weren’t being taken care of properly. It became all too apparent when Doflamingo had taken him to what he said was the newest kid he got.

“In here is Law. He’s a little boy with cancer.”, Doflamingo said as he opened the door. Corazon paled when they went in. There was a little boy with a white spotted hat lying on the bed. He looked pale, and his breaths were uneven. The boy peeled his eyes open and looked up at Corazon. The boy glared at him.

“He’s in stage four now. Isn’t that so sad little brother.”, Doflamingo said with a smile. There wasn’t a shred of sadness in his voice. The boy looked even more pissed as Doflamingo kept talking. “There’s nothing you can do after that. Well, poor Law has a nice place to rest now.”

Corazon clenched his fists. Ah. He knew what it was all about that moment. This taking in of kids was his older brother’s fucked up way of trying to make himself feel better. The man wanted a family so bad, but he also wanted a pat on the back for taking in so many children. He looked at his brother in horror and saw he was grinning at him. 

“Isn’t this great? Our family really has expanded. I know all the children will love you Corazon. You always were the nicer one.”, Doflamingo said. Corazon looked at Law barely breathing on the bed and felt sick.

* * *

Corazon stayed at his brother’s house after that. He had no choice really. He could always rent his own apartment with his portion of the inheritance, but he just got back from the army and had nowhere to settle down. He told himself he’d only stay until he gets everything situated to go, but for some reason he found himself starting to get attached to one of the kids.

Yeah, he had visited Law after that. The boy would usually ignore him or stare at the ceiling and complain about how Corazon was creepy without really sounding scared or bothered. Corazon would always stay briefly before leaving. The image of the pale boy under the thick covers was one that was hard to not think about, especially with the knowledge the boy was in that very house. When he had written on a piece of paper asking his brother about why Law wasn’t at a hospital Doflamingo had waved him off.

“It’s very slim that he’ll live even if they did do the treatments on him. It’s so like you to care like that, but there’s no hope for Law..There’s no use in spending all the money on those treatments for nothing.”, Doflamingo had simply said. “What I’m more concerned with right now is finding you a job..You can help me with my work Corazon.”

Corazon was too preoccupied with the fact that his brother had just admitted he didn’t want to help the child to really care about whatever job he was trying to offer him. Wasn’t Doflamingo supposed to be the child’s so called father? Corazon had left the room after that, his brother calling after him confused.

Corazon went to Law’s room after that. The poor boy looked exhausted, but he looked at Corazon and frowned.

“Are you here to bring me food?”, Law asked and Corazon frowned in confusion. The boy huffed. “Just great. Of course everyone forgot about me again.”

Corazon blinked at the words. Were they not giving the boy meals. Corazon’s heart sank. He quickly left the room and came back with sandwiches and fruit. The boy had looked surprised.

“I don’t like bread.”, The boy had mumbled, but he took the food anyway, weakly eating it. “Leave me alone now. I just want to die in peace.”

How could a boy Law’s age talk about death that way? It wasn’t right. Corazon knew he had to get that boy out of that house. Law was going to die if he stayed there. So that night, Corazon confronted Doflamingo and for the first time in many years he talked to his brother. It was more like yelling with how angry he was, but it made his throat sore all the same.

“He’s so young! And he’s going to die like this! If there’s a chance why don’t you take it!”, Corazon yelled. His brother’s eyebrows raised. 

“Corazon- Your voice..You can talk again.”, Doflamingo said. He was smiling.

“That’s- That’s not the point!”, Corazon exploded. “You forget to feed him, and you leave him alone in that room! I’m taking him to a hospital.”

“A hospital?”, His brother said with a frown. He didn’t even acknowledge the fact that he was neglecting Law. “I already told you brother, it wouldn’t do anything.”

“That’s not true. If there’s a chance, we should be taking it. Didn’t you say these kids are family?”, Corazon asked. 

“Yes, and I know how to take care of my family, Corazon. Law wouldn’t want me to spend my whole fortune in a pointless endeavor-”, Doflamingo waved off. “I wouldn’t want to prolong his pain and suffering.”

“How could you say that? He’s still alive.”, Corazon said. He shook his head. Damn it, if Doflamingo wasn’t going to take matters into his own hands then he would. “Then let me. I’ll take Law to the hospital and pay for the costs with my side of the inheritance.”

“You don’t mean that Corazon. You barely know the kid. And he’s my child.”, Doflamingo said. He sounded irritated.

“Then hand the custody over to me. I’ll be Law’s parent if I have to.”

Doflamingo’s smile dropped. That began the second part of his rocky relationship with his older brother. But the next day, Corazon helped a confused Law pack his bags, and they drove away from that house.

* * *

Corazon didn’t know the first thing about being a parent, but he had tried his best with Law. Law was quiet at first, and whenever he talked to Corazon it would be negative. Corazon never took it to heart though. He knew the kid was just going through a lot.

He had found a nice enough hospital after a while of searching. They said they could try some treatments of Law but it was unlikely they would work. Corazon didn’t care. He told them to try what they could. And when he sat next to Law on the hospital bed he gave the boy the smile.

“See Law? They said they could help you here.”, The man said and the boy frowned.

“Don’t lie to me. I’m a doctor you know.”, Law said bitterly. Corazon raised an eyebrow.

“Oh really?”, Corazon asked and Law nodded.

“My parents were doctors. They would teach me and let me read their books.”, Law said hollowly. The boy’s face darkened. “I’m going to die. It’s too late for me now. It’s what I deserve.”

“What? Law how could you say that?”, Corazon asked in surprise.

“I left her in the closet. You wouldn’t understand. I’m going to die and it’s what I get.”, Law said. He pulled his hat down and turned on his side away from Corazon. Corazon could tell he was crying from his voice. “I’m tired. You can go and leave me alone or whatever.”

“Law I’m not leaving.”, Corazon said without a thought, but the boy didn’t answer. He must have already been asleep. Corazon sighed. 

“Law, I promise you’ll live. How can a boy your age accept death so freely? You must be hurting so much.”, Corazon mumbled. He felt tears in his eyes and quickly wiped at them. This was no time to be crying. This child was depending on him. He needed to make he wanted to live no matter what. If Law gave up hope then none of the treatment in the world was going to be able to fix the boy. With that in mind, Corazon made his way to the gift shop.

When Law woke up the next morning Corazon was waiting with a smile.

“Law, I know today’s going to be your first day of treatment. So I got you this.”, He said as he handed Law a stuffed bear. The boy blinked and took the stuffed animal into his hands.

“A stuffed animal? I’m not two years old.”, Law grumbled and Corazon rolled his eyes.

“It’s not just any stuffed animal. It’s a polar bear, and it knows kung foo.”, Corazon said as he did a pose he hoped resembled a kung foo one. Law looked surprised at the display, and to Corazon’s surprise the boy laughed. 

“You’re ridiculous.”, Law said with a smile. Corazon grinned. 

Law slept with the polar bear every night after that, and Corazon sat on the hospital bed chair next to his bed. Law would have nightmares, but Corazon would always gently wake up or soothe him back to sleep. He would ask Law if he wanted to talk about them. Law would always say he wasn’t ready, and Corazon nodded and knew Law would tell him what they were about when he was ready. Yeah, Corazon never wanted a kid, until then that was.

* * *

Things were way different after Law got better enough to leave the hospital. The boy was walking around without a problem, and he didn’t get tired as easily like he used to. Corazon had enrolled him into the neighborhood school, and with what was left of his inheritance, he bought an apartment building and filled Law’s room with all he needed.

“We’re not going back to Doffy’s?”, Law asked as he subconsciously tugged at Corazon's black coat. He almost sounded nervous. Corazon had shook his head, surprised the child had thought that. He forced a smile. 

“This is our new home now Law. I know it’s not much compared to that big house but-”

“No.”, Law had quickly said. “This is perfect.” Corazon smiled at that. Law had taken his stuffed bear and placed it on the bed.

Corazon did everything he could to make Law comfortable after that. The boy was still sick, and they would need to go to weekly appointments at the hospital, but Law didn’t seem to mind. He stopped with all the dying talk, and started talking about the future instead.

“Cora-san.”, Law said as he held up a book Corazon had gotten him. It was a book about medicine that Law was practically trying to read when the two were at the store. Corazon couldn’t resist getting the book for the child. Law must have already finished it with how much he had been reading it lately. It amazed Corazon how smart his son was. “I’m going to be a doctor when I grow up.”

“Law, that’s a wonderful idea!”, Corazon had said. “You’re going to be an amazing doctor!” The man had picked up Law and started spinning him around.

“Hey! Cut that out!”, Law had said but was laughing. As much as he denied it, Corazon knew he liked when he did that. “Really, I’m going to be sick!”

“Alright alright.”, Corazon said as he set the child back down. Law pouted. 

“I just wanted to tell you. You know, since you need to buy me more books.”, Law had said and Corazon laughed.

“We’ll get you more books Law. There is always the library though-”, Corazon said. He took Law to get his library card that day, and despite the librarian's gentle urges not to, Law took home twenty books that day, and Corazon watched him immediately start reading them when they got home.

Corazon always worried about Law despite the fact his son was obviously very into learning, and he was slowly getting better. He always worried that Law might have trouble making friends, or that the boy wouldn’t talk to him if he was feeling down. Corazon always encouraged him to come to him if he needed anything.

“You could even invite your friends from school over you know.”, He had reminded Law and Law would look up from his book.

“What would Penguin or Shachi do here?”, Law asked and Corazon had to stop himself from falling over in relief when he heard the name of Law’s friends that he definitely had.

Yeah, things were going to be great for Law, Corazon was sure of it. Law was doing great in school, he had friends who loved him, and he had a not so subtle crush on Eustass Kid. As much as he hated that last part, he couldn’t deny that he was happy for his son. He hoped Law wouldn’t forget him when he moved onto college. The young man has been more distant these days, but Corazon just thought it was the stress of college and school. He always reminded Law to take a break.

“You’re doing great Law, you don’t need to push yourself so hard.”, He would say with a thumbs up and Law would look up from his book that he was reading on the couch and crack a smile.

“Thanks Cora-ya. You really need to stop worrying though.”, Law said and Corazon laughed.

“I’m your dad, of course I’m going to worry-”

* * *

“Oi Corazon.”, Corazon heard a familiar voice say through the phone. Corazon was sitting in his car after he had just gotten off of work. He had a lit cigarette in his hand and he frowned at the voice from the other side on the phone. It was an unknown number.

“Who is this?”, He asked as he took a drag from his cigarette. 

“It’s Eustass Kid.”, The voice said and Corazon’s frown deepened.

“Kid? Why are you calling me?”, He sat up straight. “Is Law ok? What’s going on?”

“I- No. Not really. I just need to talk to you about something.”, Kid said.

“Talk to me? Where’s Law?”, Corazon asked.

“He’s home. Me and Killer dropped him off after school. He said he wanted to be alone. I couldn’t talk to you while he was there at home so I asked Penguin for your number. He has it because Law forgot his phone once and had to text you or something.”, Kid explains and Corazon puts out his cigarette. Just what was going on? 

“Kid. Spit it out already.”, Corazon says.

“I think this is something I should tell you in person? I don’t know.”, Kid says. He sounds frustrated. “It’s about Law. Something’s not right, and I don’t know what to do about it.”

Corazon feels his uneasiness grow. Kid clearly sounded reluctant to tell Corazon what's wrong with Law. He knows it must be serious if Eustass Kid is telling him about whatever it was. He thinks back to all those times Law refused to go back to therapy after he had a few weeks of it in middle school. He puts a hand over his face.

“Look, I’ll meet you somewhere if you want?”, Corazon says and he hears Kid talk to someone on the other side of the phone. After a moment Kid says, “Sure.”  
“Alright, I’ll meet you at the park by the school. Kid, is Law safe at home right now?”, Corazon asks.

“I think so..”, Kid says. Corazon feels like he’s about to lose it.

“I’ll meet you at the park alright?”, Corazon says before he hangs up. He doesn’t know what this is about, but some ideas pop in his mind.

His son had some mental health problems, he knows. He remembers Law crying about how he was “messed up” when Corazon took him to a specialist when Law was fourteen. Corazon had comforted Law and hugged him and tried to tell him that wasn’t true at all. Law had PTSD from the fire, and it was what was contributing to his nightmares that made it difficult for him to sleep. Corazon tried to be as supportive as he could with his son about the discovery. He drove him to and from therapy every week, and he let Law take sleeping medications prescribed to him although he was wary of it. Law had said the treatment was helping, and after a year, Law was well enough to stop therapy. 

Corazon wasn’t an expert on it honestly. He tried his best to learn as much as he could about it, but he didn’t know if it was possible to pop up again after years. He frowns at the steering wheel and shakes his head. He pulls out his phone and dials Law’s number.

After a half a minute it picks up.

“Law-”, Corazon says. He tries not to let up anything. “I’m running to the store after work right now. Need anything?”

“No.”, Law says. Corazon bites his lip. He could tell Law had been crying by his voice but doesn’t say anything about it.

“Come on, I’ll get anything you want. Don’t you still like those gummy worms?”, Corazon says.

“Really Cora-ya, I’m fine.”, Law says. He sounds calmer than before. Corazon sighs.

“Well alright, I’ll be home soon. Call me if you need anything.”, Corazon says.

“Alright.”, Law says and hangs up and Corazon shakes his head and puts away his phone and starts driving.

* * *

“You have to tell us what’s going on.”, Penguin says. He’s been trying to make Kid spill what happened for the last hour. “I’m one of his best friends- If something happened to Law.”

“Listen- I can’t tell anyone ok? I just need to tell his dad. Why don’t you guys go home?”, Kid asks as he looks at Penguin and Killer.

“I’m the one who gave you the ride here jackass.”, Killer says with no heat behind the words. “Did someone beat him up or something? I didn’t see any bruises, but he did have that jacket on..”

“No- Nobody beat up Trafalgar. He’s fine.”, Kid says even though he isn’t sure. The four of them had left school early and skipped the last class. Kid had tried to just ask Killer if he could borrow the car to drop Law off at home, but of course Killer didn’t trust Kid behind the wheel and Penguin wanted to come to help his friend. They must have saw how out of it Law looked because Penguin was nothing but worried questions as they snuck out of the building.

“I’m fine Penguin-ya. Just a stomach bug. I’ll be fine.”, Law had tried to wave off, but everyone saw how sick he looked.

“I’m still coming with-”, Penguin has said adamantly much to Law’s disappointment.

And that’s how the four of them ended up in the car, Killer and Penguin up front while Law and Kid sat in the back. Kid couldn’t stop glancing over at Law, and Law was looking down at his hands in his lap. Before the two left the bathroom, Law had once again made Kid promise not to tell Corazon, and Kid being the liar he was promised not to. He knew he probably shouldn’t have lied, but the look of relief on Law’s face told him it was the right thing to say at the time. Law was going to flip when he finds out what Kid’s about to do, but it was Kid’s only choice in his mind. If today told him anything, he honestly couldn’t help Law with this. It hurt to think about, but he knew it was true.

When they stopped in front of Law’s house Kid mumbled something about helping him inside which Law denied. He said he wanted to be alone, and although that made Kid worry he just let him go. Penguin called after how Law could always call them if he needed help or anything while he was sick. They all watched Law walk into his house.

“Alright. I need to make a call now.”, Kid had said after that and Killer looked at him confused.

“Call who?”, Killer had asked and Kid curses when he realizes he of course does not have the Law’s dad’s number. “Oi Penguin give your phone.”

“What!?”, Penguin had asked and Kid sighed. Just great.

“Look, I need a number I don’t have and I bet you have it.”, Kid said as he held out his hand expectantly. “So just hand it over and-”

“Oi you can’t just take my boyfriend’s phone.”, Killer said. “Who’s number could you need right now?”

“Fine-”, Kid said, giving up. This wasn’t going to get him anywhere. “I need Law’s dad’s number ok.”

“What? Why do you need his number. Oh god- There’s something wrong with Law Isn't there?”, Penguin asked. He looked out the window and at the door to the apartment building in horror. “Don’t tell me he’s sick again..Like really-”

“No that’s not it ok? Just give me his number already. You have it don’t you?”, Kid asked and Penguin looked relieved but it was quickly replaced with a look of confusion. “Well- Yeah, Law used it to text him when his phone died when we went to the mall once- but why do you need it?”

“Honey, just give him the phone number.”, Killer finally said. He looks at Kid through the mirror. “If Kid is choosing to call Law’s father then it must be something serious no?”

Kid swallowed, and despite Penguin’s worry he had read aloud the number to Kid and Kid punched the numbers in his phone and called the number. He wondered if the other would pick up, and remembers Law mentioning how Corazon works late sometimes but to both his relief and dread the other picked up.

And that was how the three of them were there by Killer’s car, the other two refusing to leave after hearing the confusing conversation on the phone they could hear one side of.

“Listen”, He says seriously. “When he comes here I need to talk to him alone. No snooping.”

“Alright alright.”, Killer says. He frowns. “This sounds serious Kid. We won’t listen.”

“Yeah..”, Penguin says even though it’s clear he wanted to. They all look when they hear another car pull into the park’s parking lot and parks next to their own.

“Kid. What’s going on?”, Corazon asks as he steps out of the car. Kid gulps at the tone of his voice. Killer takes Penguin’s hand.

“We’re going for a walk. See you later if you still need a ride Kid.”, He says. Kid watches them both walk away, grateful they got the hint.

“Kid-”, Corazon says again, his tone verging on angry and Kid sighs.

“I’m not good at this stuff..Which is why I kind of have to tell you. Law’s been having problems. With eating.”, Kid says. He looks away.  
“Problems with eating?..”, Corazon asks. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, he has an eating disorder or something. He’s been making himself puke in school. He- Fuck he collapsed one morning after doing it. I came into the bathroom and saw him on the floor.”, Kid admits. He looks and sees the shock on the older man’s face. He sighs. “I know Law’s going to hate me for telling you but.. It seems too serious to let it go on.”

“Oh god.”, Corazon finally says. He takes out a cigarette and lights it up with fumbling hands. Kid watches him carefully. Everyone knows how many times Law’s father almost burnt himself alive lighting his coat on fire while lighting a cigarette. “So he?..I didn’t- This can’t be.”

“I’m not lying- That’d be a messed up prank.”, Kid says. He really wants to leave. He’s already getting a pit in his stomach at the thought of seeing Law the next time he sees him after this. To his surprise, he really couldn’t stand the thought of Law hating him for real. “I just- You know how to help him right?”

“I..Of course. I can help him. Thank you for telling me.”, Corazon says. He’s obviously trying to stay calm. “I’m going to go home to Law now- Did he make himself..today?”

“Yeah.”, Kid answers honestly. He almost admits it was kind of his fault for making Law eat today but he keeps his mouth shut. Corazon was already on the verge of tears.

“Ok. Thank you for telling me.”, Corazon repeats as he gets in his car and Kid watches him practically speed out of the parking lot. Kid watches him go and sighs and sits on the curb and pulls out his own cigarettes and lights one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: I'm taking a break-  
> Also me: Writes a chapter immediately after finishing an art piece
> 
> Sorry y'all I'm addicted to this fic. Also sorry for all the flashbacks but im guessing if you're really a One Piece fan you love flashbacks as much as me lmao. Also here's my insta if you wanna maybe see a Law and Cora drawing I just made. Planning on posting more OP art for now- https://www.instagram.com/simmering_sun/


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Law starts getting help, and Kid realizes some things

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this chapter is pretty short compared to the others-

Law stared down at his hands as he sat on his bed, his phone he just got off his call with Corazon beside him. He has tears in his eyes but he wipes them away. He was sick of crying over this. Yeah, maybe there was something wrong with him, but he still felt like he shouldn’t be crying over it. He didn’t deserve to be crying over it. He caused all of this himself.

It was his fault Kid saw him like that, crying like some child. He had expected jeering remarks from the redhead, but instead he got a helping hand that pulled him off the cold hard floor and a hug that made Law feel the warmest he’s felt in years. He had froze in shock at that, but he remembers the way he had practically melted into the embrace and hugged Kid back, his hands gripping the ridiculous red fur jacket that Kid always wore. He must have looked ridiculous, but he didn’t pull away until Kid did, the other mumbling something about giving him a ride home, which Law just silently agreed with. He knew Corazon wouldn’t be home yet anyways. In some sort of frenzy he had once again made Kid promise not to tell Corazon, and Kid just nodded.

“I won’t tell him.”, Kid had mumbled. “Come on, you look like shit Trafalgar. Let’s get you home.”

He felt shame wash over him. Kid must have thought he was pathetic, and Law couldn’t blame him. He really was. He sighs and pulls down at his hat. He had to get it together. Corazon was going to come home any minute and probably ask Law how his day was like always. He didn’t need to bother him with his problems too.

He sighs and takes a deep breath. Everything was going to be fine. Maybe things had gotten out of his control but it wasn’t something he could fix. He swallows at the thought of how he felt at lunch. It felt sickening to think he didn’t have control of even his own eating anymore. He really was a mess.

He looks at his phone and looks at the time and sighs. There was no use sulking about what happened all day. Kid might think less of him now, but it wasn’t like Kid would ever see him more than some rival anyways. He really needed to let go of his crush

“Law?”, He hears a familiar voice say and he gets up. 

“I’m right here Cora-ya.”, Law says as he leaves the room. Corazon has a look on his face that makes Law frown. “Did something happen at the store? You don’t even have any bags..”

“Law..”, Corazon says as he walks over. He kneels next to Law, putting a hand on his shoulder and meeting him at eye level. “I think we need to talk about something..”

“Corazon.”, Law says. His heart sinks. No- He couldn’t have told him. He promised. “About what?”

“I’m not going to lie..I heard some things. About you. I know things are hard, and I want you to talk to me.”

“He told you.”, Law mutters bitterly and Corazon sighs.

“Yeah- He told me. But Law, that doesn’t matter right now-”, Corazon says and Law shakes his head.

“No- Of course it matters. He shouldn’t have told you Cora-ya. Whatever he told you, it’s not true.”, Law tries to level his voice. He couldn’t let Corazon worry. He couldn’t let him know that he was still fucked up in the head even after all the man has done for Law. “Really, I’m fine.”

“It’s ok Law. Please tell me what’s going on ok? I can help you-”, Corazon says. He’s almost pleading and Law has to look away when he feels tears start to work their way into his eyes.

“I don’t need help Cora-ya. What did Kid tell you?”, Law asks, bitterly spitting out the name of the redhead. 

“He told me you’ve been..making yourself sick.”, Corazon says. It’s obvious he’s trying to choose the right words to say which makes Law frown even more. “He said you had an eating disorder.”

“Well that’s not true.”, Law says and Corazan sighs.

“Please- Be honest with me, Law. I know I’m not the best father but-”

“Don’t say that!”, Law suddenly cuts off Corazon before he can continue. The blonde’s eyes widen in surprise and Law clenches his fists and finds himself still talking. “How could you even say that Cora-ya? You’re- You’re the best ok? This is all me. It’s always been about me screwing things up ok?”

“Law..”, Corazon says. “No that’s- You shouldn’t say that about yourself! You’re the best son anyone could have. You didn’t mess anything up ok? This is something we can fix..”

“Cora-ya..”, Law says and is suddenly pulled into a hug. 

“You’re perfect Law- Which is why I don’t understand why you’re doing this to yourself, but I want to. We’ll figure this out ok? We always do.”, Corazon says. Law can’t see his face but he knows the idiot is crying, and so was he. He buries his face in his father’s chest.

“Yeah..Ok.”, Law says. It sounds like defeat when he says it, but the relieved “Ok.” Corazon gives back at that makes him start to believe otherwise. Yeah, maybe things are going to be ok. For real this time.

* * *

Law didn’t go to school the next day, not much to Kid’s surprise.

Kid had half expected to wake up to numerous hateful messages from the man, but when he woke up in the morning after a restless nights sleep he just saw some dumb instagram notifications that he just swiped away. He had thought that maybe Law was saving it all up for when he saw him in person. Kid frowns at the thought. As much as Kid might have loved the idea of fighting the know-it-all, it would have been much better if they did it when Law didn’t absolutely hate him. But it was too late for thoughts like that now. He had already broken his promise, and he knew Law was going to try and get him back. Somehow.

“God. You look so depressed.”, Apoo had said at the lunch table. He said it with a nervous laugh, somehow reading the atmosphere for once and telling this was serious. Penguin and Killer were practically quiet too even if they didn’t know just what was going on.

“Shut up.”, Kid waved off to the long armed man. He really didn’t have the energy to beat Apoo’s ass today. He checked his phone again. No damn messages. 

“Did something happen?”, Hawkins inquires.

“Can’t you read it on your damn fortune telling cards?”, Kid grumbles and points to the cards that Hawkins was currently looking at.

“That is not how my cards work.”, The blonde says. “And I don’t need my cards to tell this about Trafalgar Law.”

“Then shut up.”, Kid says and Apoo gawks.

“So it is about Law?”, He asks. He sighs and pats Kid on the shoulder. “Got rejected huh? Well there’s a lot fish in the sea as they say. You know, I thought he really liked you, but maybe I was-”

“That’s not what this is about!”, Kid stops Apoo’s rambling. He huffs and stands up. “I’m going for a smoke.”

“Oi, I’ll go with you.”, Killer says and stands up. He kisses Penguin on the cheek and mumbles “Be right back.” to the hatted man before he follows Kid out of the lunchroom.

“So, tell me what happened.”, Killer says. “I mean- You don’t have to tell me exactly, but I can’t let you go around looking like you’re about to be eaten alive at any moment.”

“I don’t.”, Kid says as he shoves his hands in his pockets. “Law’s definitely going to try and fight me when he comes back. And I don’t want you interfering ok?”

“Not like I would.”, Killer says with a shrug. “I know that’s a battle for love.”

“Haha very funny.”, Kid says without as much bite as usual. They walk to the sixth floor. There’s a balcony there, and on Tuesdays when all the teachers had their meetings during lunch it was the perfect place to have a smoke.

“There was something wrong with him. I’m not saying what, but I didn't know how the hell to handle it, and he wasn’t handling it either so..I told his bird of a father.”, Kid finds himself confiding. “He’s going to hate me. He does hate me.”

“Kid- Whatever it was, I’m sure Trafalgar will appreciate you telling someone..Maybe not right now but in the future.”, Killer says as he lights up a smoke and passes it to the redhead. Kid takes it gratefully and takes a drag from it. \

“That’s such a corny thing to say.”, Kid says. “You know this is Law. He hates being seen as weak”

“Do you see him as weak?”, Killer asks and Kid shakes his head.

“Well no- But he probably thinks that’s what this is all about. And that I told his dad for some kind of revenge or something, I don’t know.”, Kid sighs at the thought and looks out at the view.

“Well why did you tell his dad?”, Killer asks.

“Well wouldn’t you? I thought he was going to die..”, Kid admits. “You all joke about how I have a crush on him or something, but I don’t want him out of my life.”

“You absolute moron.”, Killer says with a half laugh. “Those aren’t jokes. Of course everyone in the world knows about your crush on him besides you- And him-”

“What!”, Kid says. He shakes his head. That was ridiculous. He didn’t have a crush on the guy with the stupidly cute hat that looked like a fucking mushroom. The guy who Kid would always go out of his way to get under his skin just to see that half smile. The one who had striking yellow eyes, soft messy hair, and fit perfectly in Kid’s arms.

“Oh fuck.”, He mumbles. He had a crush on Trafalgar Law. The guy who probably now hated him more than anything. He runs a hand through his hair and resists the urge to bang his head against the wall until he forgets about the revelation. Killer snorts next to him.

“Took you long enough.”, He says. “Just talk to him. He might be mad now but, I doubt his feelings are going to go away after this.”

“His feelings? I don’t know what you’re talking about Killer.”, Kid says and Killer shakes his head.

“You really are an idiot Kid.”

* * *

The next few days were hard for Law.

Despite Law’s protests against it, Corazon insisted he stay home from school until they got some things in order.

“You needed a break anyways Law, I’m sure your teachers won’t mind.”, His father had said and Law frowned and didn’t say anything. If he was honest he just wanted this all to be over, so he forced himself to follow along. He didn’t ever want to make Corazon cry again too.

If he was honest though, this felt anything but a break.

After their long hug, Corazon had led them over to the couch and gently tried to ask Law some questions. Law didn’t really answer all of them, not really at least. He felt pretty pathetic admitting part of it was because of weight. Corazon had shook his head sadly at that when Law admitted it, but he reassured Law that it was ok.

“We should take you to the doctors..”, Corazon had said Law had sighed.

“What if they ship me away somewhere?”, Law mumbled. He didn’t want to admit it, but the thought of having to go to a facility terrified him. 

“They wouldn’t do that. You actually want to get better right? Not that there’s anything wrong with needing to go to one..”, Corazon reasoned. “No matter what happens, I’ll be right there ok?”

“Yeah.”, Law had said, because he knew it was true. Memories of Corazon staying next to his bedside every day when he was at the hospital told him it was true. “Alright, we can do that.”

The next day they had went to the doctors, Law shifting the whole time in the waiting room while Corazon tried to distract him by showing the stupid ads they had in the wellness magazines laid out. When his name was called they followed the doctor to the room, Corazon going with them. Law had thought for a minute that it was childish to still have your parent there during a check up, but he supposed this was a different kind of check up, and he appreciated the fact that Corazon was there with him.

What followed was a whole lot of questions from the doctor. They asked Law about his eating habits and if he had any symptoms they should know of. Law had carefully talked about skipping breakfast and lunch mostly every day, Corazon looking heartbroken at the words but trying to stay positive for Law’s sake. They took his weight next and checked his heart and blood pressure. In the end, Law was reported as very obviously underweight. After a lot of talking it was decided that Law would need to visit a dietitian and therapist more than once a week. 

When him and Corazon got in the car, Law’s hands were shaking slightly. He had kept it together in the office, not wanting to set off the doctor even more than he probably did because of his weight and eating habits he had admitted, but now that it was just the two of them in the car he found himself breaking down.

“Law, it’s ok..I know this all seems like a lot but- I’m really proud of you for agreeing with this..”, Corazon tells him.

“Thanks.”, Law says without really meaning it. Corazon shouldn’t be proud of him for this. He was the one who had caused this whole mess in the first place after all. If he was honest he wasn’t really even sure if he wanted to actually put in the effort of getting better. If eating with Kid at lunch the other day told him anything, it was hard. But the way Corazon was talking and helping through with all of this made him consider going through with it. He’d really be a piece of shit if he made Corazon do all of this for him for nothing.

“Your first appointment is the day after tomorrow. You’ll do great Law..”, Corazon said.

“I doubt that. But I’ll try.”, He says as he pulls his phone out of his pocket. He got a text from Penguin and Shachi saying they hope he feels better. Law frowns. Kid must have not told them what was really going on then. His heart clenches at the thought of the redhead. Of course he didn’t text Law. He probably wants nothing to do with him anymore. Law shakes his head and puts his phone away.

The two of them go home after that, and Law stares out the window the whole time, trying not to think about how different things are going to be from now on. He’s not stupid. He was right there when he heard the doctor tell Corazon he’ll need to keep an eye on Law more during these times. He wouldn’t be able to make himself puke or starve himself anymore. He frowns. He doubted he could control himself enough to not do those things anymore but he guesses he had to try.

When they got home, Corazon asked Law if he wanted to watch a movie. Law knew what he was doing. He was trying to reassure Law that things would be normal even when they weren’t. Still, Law had nothing else better to do than sit on his bed and check his phone every few minutes to see if maybe Kid texted him, so he sits on the couch as Corazon rattles on names of movies they could watch and makes some popcorn.

In the end they settle for a horror movie and Law actually smiles a bit as Corazon yelps at a jumpscare. He even finds himself picking at a few pieces of popcorn, shoving the thoughts about how much calories each piece must have been away.

* * *

The next few days were a drag for Kid. Law hadn’t shown up to school in a while now, and no matter how hard he tried to ignore thoughts about the other, he just couldn’t stop thinking about him. The worst part was, people were asking HIM where the hell Law was, like he was the go to person to ask instead of say Penguin or Shachi.

“He hasn’t shown up in days! Toroa never misses school!”, Luffy had whined to Kid during lunch. Kid saw his sneaking hands trying to steal food off his tray and he quickly stans his hand with the plastic spork earning a surprised noise from the kid.

“Listen Strawhat- Why the hell would I know where he is?”, Kid had asked annoyed and Luffy had a confused look on his face.

“Well aren’t you and him boyfriends? Nami told me so.”, Luffy says with a pout. “Wow you’re a bad boyfriend if you don’t even know where he is.”

Kid gawked, the rest of the table snickering and holding back their laughter as Kid clenches his fist. “Listen! He’s not-”, Kid had tried to say, but Luffy was already gone with some of Kid’s food he had stolen while he was distracted.

Yeah, school really blew without the aspiring surgeon around.

So when Kid went to school the next day and saw a familiar figure in a long black coat, and stupid hat on his head, he couldn’t help he smile that broke out on his face.

It was three minutes before the start of their first classes. Kid had just walked in and was planning on taking a piss even though that’d definitely make him late to his first class. But there Law was, going through his locker and taking out a few of the large textbooks that Kid wouldn’t even have bothered with. The man looked over at him and Kid’s smile immediately dropped at the frown on Law’s face.

“Law-”, Kid calls out but Law slams his locker shut and starts walking away.

“Hey wait!”, Kid calls out. He wasn’t going to give up this easily. He runs in front of the other and Law glares at him in annoyance.

“I’m going to be late for class.”, Law says bitterly.

“You’ve been gone for days, I don’t think five more minutes is going to kill you-”, Kid says. He shakes his head and says, “We need to talk.”

“We don’t have anything to talk about.”, Law says. “You lied to me Kid.”

“I know- Maybe I shouldn’t have but, I knew you’d be against it.”, Kid tries to reason but Law shakes his head.

“And did you ever think why I would? My dad didn’t need to know about all of this..Now he’s just worried.”, Law says and Kid sighs.

“Well no shit he is, he’s your dad. Look- You can hate me all you want Trafalgar, I don’t give a shit. But just tell me- Are you ok now?”, Kid asks, his voice softening at the end. Law’s eyes widened in surprise at that. He pulls his hat down and sighs.

“Listen Eustass-ya, it’s not just something that magically goes away..I was an idiot. I got really deep into things I shouldn’t have.”, Law admits quietly.

“I’m not here to judge you or anything like that.”, Kid says as he shakes his head. “I only told your dumbass bird of a dad so you’d get actual help-”

“Don’t call him that-”, Law says but then he stops. “You did?”

Kid frowns at the surprise in his voice. Just what was Law thinking? “Yeah- I didn’t do it out of spite or whatever you’re thinking. I would have used my fists for that. I fucked up ok? I admit that. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing and made you eat-”

“It’s..It’s fine Eustass-ya.”, Law says. There’s a slight smile on his face and Kid feels a sweep of relief go through him.

“So..You’re getting help now?”, Kid asks and Law nods.

“Yeah..Therapy and dietitian. Not that it’s any of your business.”, Law says and Kid rolls his eyes.

“Don’t think this means I can’t fight you still Trafalgar-”, Kid says and Law’s smile grows bigger.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way Eustass-ya.”, he says. Kid grins. The bell rings and Law sighs in annoyance but doesn’t move from where he’s standing.

“Sorry I made you late for class nerd.”, Kid says his fake apology. “Hey- If you want to sit at our table during lunch you still can. I won’t say anything. And if anyone else does well- We can take care of them.”  
“Yeah..”, Law says. “I think maybe I will. Goodbye Eustass-ya.”

“See you later, Trafalgar.”, Kid says as he watches the other start walking to class. He grins, an invisible weight being taken off of his chest. Law didn’t hate him. And he was going to be ok. Kid grinned. Maybe things weren’t so bad after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this fic might be coming close to an end? Probably 1-3 more chaps I think idk, kind of writing this as I gooo. But thank you for all the support! 8) I think I might make another KidLaw fic after this-   
> Started watching Wano and I am going to CRY at how good the animation got, because it was so shitty for a long time which was part of why I stopped watching it- AND THAT SOUNDTRACK AND THOSE NEW OUTFITS UGH My love for this show is really returning <3


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Law rolls with the punches, and Kid starts planning something out

Despite all the signs that Law’s life was going even more to shit, things surprisingly took a turn for the better for him. 

His first appointments were a drag and would always bring him down with the reminder that he fucked up something as simple as a basic human function, but he trudged through them and tried his best not to shut down during them despite how much he just wanted to flip the specialists off and ignore them. He knew the only reason he wanted to do that was because he didn’t like the information they kept giving him, and the answers to the questions they kept asking him.

It was strange, since he was an aspiring doctor. Usually everything in the human body fascinated him, but he quickly discovered just how much he hated the mysteries of the human mind. Mostly, because his sucked. 

The dietitian gave Law some sort of meal plan to follow on their first meetings, and Corazon took it to heart, telling Law he could cook anything they suggested for him. Law still hated how much his father was doing for him with all of this, but he didn’t stop him because he knew he needed this to put himself back together. It hurt at first. All the eating, and the watchful eyes of his father at every meal at the house. 

They shared breakfast and dinners now, Corazon waking just a bit early before work so they could eat together. It took everything in Law not to make himself sick the first day they tried it. It was something light, just scrambled eggs, but just a few bites had Law practically gagging. Corazon noticed of course and had gently told Law it was ok if he couldn’t eat everything on the plate yet. It put a pit of shame in his stomach, even when he knew that’s not why Corazon told him that. Even the specialist told him he might not be able to eat everything they suggested at first, but it still made Law feel even more sick with the thought that he couldn’t even eat right.

But, he still managed to somehow not try and run to the bathroom and throw up. The thought of even doing it behind Corazon’s back made him wring his hat in his hands. Corazon kept praising him lightly when he managed to eat anything, and Law tried his best not to think of it as patronizing since he knew damn well his father meant everything he said. It still didn’t get him to ask Corazon to back off.

“You don’t need to tell me that stuff. I shouldn’t be awarded for eating.”, Law had said bitterly. It was all silly in his mind. Normal people ate every day without any problem.

“Law..I just want you to know I’m proud of you for trying.”, Corazon admitted. “The doctor told me how it’s common for people suffering with this kind of stuff to not even try, which is ok since they’re not in a good place but- You’ve been trying so hard.”

Law frowned at the admittance and pulled his hat down. “It’s still unnecessary. I have to try after all you have done for me. But thanks Cora-ya..”  
Lunch on the other hand was a different story. Much to Law’s own surprise, he actually kept sitting at the table Kid and his friends sat at every day. He knew he didn’t have to. He could sit somewhere else away from watchful eyes, but, there was something oddly comforting about sitting next to Kid. Somehow the most difficult task in Law’s day was made easier by the sound of Kid complaining about some test or bickering with their tablemates. It took awhile for Law to fully be there during lunch. At first he would space off and only focus on how much it hurt to eat and how much calories he must be consuming, but when those thoughts started to become less and fade away, he would join in on the talk. 

“Maybe it wasn’t the test’s fault, but your fault for not studying Eustass-ya.”, Law had said as Kid complained about a math quiz he failed. Kid had froze in shock when he had heard Law talk, like he had just heard Law come back to life, but after a moment he had grinned and said something equally snarky back.

The fact that Kid didn’t mention it at all was something soothing to his soul. It wasn’t like Kid completely ignored the fact Law had an eating disorder though. When Law would stare at the table and grow quiet Kid would say something to him that would snap Law back to reality. It was taking some getting used to, but the thought of Kid actually giving a shit about him after all was not helping his stubborn crush.

Sometimes when Law was at home he’d look in his mirror. It was not recommended by his therapist, but the therapist be damned, he couldn’t just go everyday without looking at himself. Sometimes he would touch his face and think about if it really was getting rounder, or if it was just his mind playing tricks on him. He didn’t dare weigh himself, and he’s pretty sure Corazon hid the scale somewhere without even telling Law, but he knew he was bound to gain weight. It was part of the point of him getting better. He was on a fast sinking path of being malnutritioned before, so he should be happy he’s getting better. But he wasn’t, not really.

He thought about what he had told his therapist. He hates the nagging questions that somehow lead to Law admitting things he didn’t even really know himself. It was unnerving, but he couldn’t lie that it was doing something. He had told the therapist about why he did it. He’s not very remarkable. Yeah he had great grades and knowledge on the human body, but where was that leading him? He’s convinced he’s a terrible friend, and just a bitter person overall. Someone who’s been through all he’s been was bound to be a terrible person, and being attractive on top of that was not what he wanted. But he’s never thought of himself as attractive even after all that. Not when he had ran his fingers over his rib bones, or when he fainted in the bathroom. He must have been a sickly looking mess looking back on it.

He was getting some of his color back though, and although it almost sent him crashing back, he learned how to appreciate the fact he couldn’t see his bones sticking out of him anymore. Maybe he was getting closer to a future where he actually was a normal person. A happy person.

He did want to be happy he thinks, despite how much he found himself dwelling on stuff and seeing the negative side of things. He wanted to be close with his friends for as long as he could, and appreciate his father. And, if Law was honest, he was starting to mull over the thought of telling Eustass Kid about his feelings. Whatever these feelings were.

It was too easy to just call it love. Law isn’t sure if he’s felt love before so he doesn’t know if this is what it feels like, but he’s felt this way for Kid for a long time. He constantly has the urge to be around the other and talk to him. Yeah, maybe that led to Law constantly finding a way to bother the redhead but it was worth it for the feeling he got when the other would do the same back. Trafalgar Law DID NOT get butterflies. But whatever this fluttering in his stomach was, he quite liked it better than that familiar dull ache that he used to feel before when he would starve himself. The habit had numbed him, made him seek out Kid less than he did before, but now that he was starting to wane off of it, he was starting to find himself searching for Kid again.

Maybe it was pathetic, and maybe Kid noticed, but if he did he didn’t say anything. He would just complain about how Law was bothering him but the smile on his face told them both a different story.

He doesn’t know how he’d tell Kid about his feelings if he did. The thought was sort of terrifying, and like all terrifying thoughts he’s had before he pushes them to the back until he can’t anymore.

Law has had people confess to him before surprisingly. The first one to do so was Nami. She had confessed to Law in eighth grade much to Law’s dismay. He didn’t mind the girl, but he couldn’t imagine himself with her, and maybe that had to do with the fact he was gay. But thankfully Nami had discovered that she was a lesbian and her crushes on men were all comphet she used to distract herself from her crush on Nefertari Vivi, an exchange student who had joined their class that year. The next one was Luffy. That one was even worse than the first due to the fact the younger boy actually loved Law. 

He tried to turn him down gently, he really did, but his friends did not hide their dismay at the way the usual ball of sunshine was down for a week afterwards. He does remember that one person was overjoyed by the refusal. Eustass Kid had laughed and congratulated Law on turning down the “snot-nosed brat” as he called Luffy. It was a strange ordeal, but him and Luffy were friends still, and he didn’t seem hung up on it anymore. But when Law remembers the way Luffy confessed he frowns. The boy had just said it like it was nothing. He couldn’t imagine going up to Kid and saying anything related to the fact he liked the redhead more than a friend.

“Just great.”, Law mumbled in his room as he lost his place in his book again because his mind drifted off to thoughts of Kid again. He smiled a bit. Maybe love problems were better than eating problems he decided.

* * *

“So, are you gonna ask him.”, Killer said one day to Kid. The two of them were in Killer’s garage working on the car. Kid wipes the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand.

“I’m going to pretend like I don’t know what you’re talking about.”, Kid says aloud as he looks back at the inside of the car they were working on.

“Come on Kid. It’s senior year, the homecoming is coming up, and you have a huge crush on Trafalgar Law.”, Killer lists out and Kid’s eye twitches.

“Thanks for that.”, Kid says and shakes his head. “But no. I won’t be telling him. Because I’m not going to homecoming anyways. Are you kidding me Killer? Wait, are you going to homecoming?”

“Well no shit I am.”, Killer says with a shrug. “Not like our school does anything super special for homecoming anyways. I might not even wear a suit.”

“Good.”, Kid says honestly. “Because I can’t imagine you in one.”

“Whatever. You still didn’t answer my question.”, Killer says and Kid rolls his eyes. He mulls the idea in his head for a second. Asking Law to homecoming meant actually asking him, and telling the guy he liked him. Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.

“It’s not happening Killer, just focus on your sickening relationship with that penguin guy and leave me alone.”, Kid says as he tries to focus back on the work they’re doing. Killer rolls his eyes.

“Come on, you’ve never given up on anything before. Especially when it’s in regards to Law.”, Killer says and Kid knows what he's talking about. Whether it was a fight, banter, invitations; he rolled through it all when it came to Law. He had always chalked it up as the other irritating him to no end, but he supposed there were some other very large things he had been looking over. Apparently it was not just some rivalry when you wanted nothing more than to run your fingers through your friends soft hair you have only touched before on accident but haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. And maybe it was not just friendly thoughts when he wanted to pick up the other and carry him around. Ok, maybe Kid has imagined it, picking up the shorter man and listening to his no doubt irritated objections to it. The word that came up with thoughts like that about the aspiring doctor was adorable. But that wasn’t right at all.

Yeah, Law may have a cute laugh that Kid couldn’t get enough of when he managed to drag it out of him a few times, and maybe Kid found it oddly endearing the way the other would always try to act serious and composed but had a soft side Kid wanted to know more about. But that didn’t change the fact Law was still a snarky bastard who managed to creep most people at the school out since elementary school when he would dissect frogs on the playground with expert precision. Calling the “Surgeon of Death” as some stupid idiots on that same playground called him cute would be insane.  
Yet there Kid was, thinking about how cute Trafalgar Law was. And like a fool, he was also thinking about how he wouldn’t mind if him and Law went to homecoming together. Those were dangerous thoughts though. Law probably didn’t like Kid like that at all. I mean, if the bastard turned down ray of sunshine Monkey D. Luffy then he probably did not see any appeal to Kid.

“Just out of curiosity, how’d you ask your bird boyfriend out?”, Kid asks casually but not Killer sees right through it and smirks.

“Oh? Need advice?”, He says and before Kid protests he wipes some oil off his face and says, “I took him for a drive, and we went to one of those crumby drive through movie places. Not too crowded since the only people who seem to go there anymore are old couples, or parents dragging their bratty kids there. But- Penguin mentioned his favorite movie once and they were showing it there so I took him. Got him popcorn and his favorite candy and we sat on top of the car and watched it. Kissed a bunch, and then I may have started feeling him up a bit too much-”

“Dude. I did not ask for a love novel-”, Kid interrupts at the right time. “Seriously- So you asked then or what?”

“Yeah, after the movie was done and all those old fucks started moving it out.”, Killer says with a shrug. “I just asked casually and he was happy with it.”

“Huh.”, Kid just says and Killer closes the front hood of the car.

“Listen Kid. Just think about whatever the hell Law likes and do it with him.”, Killer says. “Get him his favorite things, and maybe he’ll overlook the fact you’re a bumbling idiot-”

“Nice to know materialism wins over still.”, Kid says with a snort but quickly scowls. “Who fucking said I was talking about asking Law anyways, I already said no! Seriously, we’re supposed to be feared in the school you and me. We can’t be lovey dovey at a fucking homecoming.”

“Fuck you. I’ll be lovey dovey with my boyfriend all I want and still be scary.”, Killer says with a shrug. “Now come on. Let’s see if this shit starts. You really fucked it up that last race.”

“Yeah yeah.”, Kid says as he rolls his eyes and recalls the drag race he had been in last night. He starts the car and as he listens to the thrum of the engine starting he wonders what the hell Law likes.

* * *

The next day it’s Saturday. Law had an appointment that morning but he got through it with not too many problems. Despite the thoughts that found their way through to him at some meals, he’s managed to not royally fuck it up. They took his weight, and asked him questions about the week and Law answered them and skips over the fact he may have skipped breakfast one of these days because he just couldn’t stomach it. But that’s much better than what he was doing before anyways so he tries not to feel the weight that loss brought him.

They commented how he was improving so Law figures he’s doing something right. He supposes that also means he’s gaining weight, but he tries not to dwell too much on that part. Corazon gives him a thumbs up after the appointment. The man hesitantly asked him if he wanted to go out and get ice cream.

“I know you’re not a kid, but I really want some.”, He had admitted. Law shrugged, not really wanting to deny him of that. Ice cream oddly didn’t sound too bad anyways.

So that’s how him and his dad were sitting outside of an ice cream stand at the park, cones in hand even though it was the middle of Fall.

“You know..This is where Kid told me.”, Corazon recalls as he looks out at the parking lot to the park.

“Oh.”, Law says. He can’t really imagine it: Eustass Kid seeking out his father and agreeing to meet him up here even after Corazon threatened his life. And all for what? For his sake? He feels guilty at the sudden feeling he gets in his chest at the thought. At the time he was pissed at him, but now he kind of brushed the whole thing off.

“Yeah. I guess he’s not such a bad kid.”, Corazon says with a shrug and Law smirks.

“Oh really? You always hated him though.”, Law pokes and Corazon shrugs.

“Hey- In my opinion he still needs to pay for that fight, but, people change.”, Corazon says. “And I can’t really change your crush on him.”

Law nearly drops his ice cream cone.

“You have to be kidding me.”, Law sputters. Fuck. How the hell did Corazon find out? “You think I like that asshole?”

“Hey- Language.”, Corazon says and he grins. “And well yeah. Even when you were little I noticed. Your first crush right? I was hoping you’d grow out of it but- I guess it didn’t go anywhere.”

“That’s!- I can’t believe we’re having this conversation about Eustass Kid-”, Law grumbles as he pulls down at the front of his hat. Corazon laughs.

“I’m sorry for embarrassing you- I won’t interfere. Unless you want me to- And of course I’d have to talk with him if you two end up together.”, Corazon rattles on and Law groans and pinches the bridge of his nose.

“There’s nothing going on with us Cora-ya!, Law says. He can’t believe he’s having this conversation with his father of all people. And the worst part of it was that he was approving of all of it. Not that there was any it-

“It’s ok Law- Your secret is safe with me. Nobody is good enough for my son, so I guess I’ll have to settle with whoever you choose.”, Corazon says and Law’s eye twitches.

“You’re way too excited about this- There’s nothing between me and-”, He stops when he hears his phone ring. He fishes the device out of his pocket, expecting to see Penguin or Shachi, but blinks when he sees the name on his screen. He looks at his father, shooting him a look that gives the silent message of not to say anything before he picks up.

“Hello?”, Law says.

“Oi Law. You busy tomorrow?”, Kid asks and Law raises an eyebrow. Why did he sound like this?

“No, I’m not.”, Law says after a moment. He planned on reading a good book he had just bought for himself tomorrow, but on second thought he could just devour that tonight if he really tried. “Why? Don’t tell me you’re actually going to ask for my help with studying, Eustass-ya”

He mentally curses himself for letting the name slip at the end, because Corazon is giving him a big grin that makes Law want to bang his head against the wall.

“Like hell Trafalgar- If you’re not busy come with me tomorrow. I have something to talk to you about.”, Kid says and Law feels his heart beat way too fast in his chest than he would like. 

“What’s this all about? Is there something going on?”, Law asks.

“Kinda. Can you go or not Trafalgar? I’ll pick you up-”, Kid adds on and Law thinks about him and Kid in the car together and smirks.

“So. Is this a date Eustass-ya?”, He says as a joke. He feels like a fool for saying it, because he knows it’s what he really wants. 

“Yeah.”, Kid says flatly and Law’s smirk drops immediately. That had to be a joke. It just wasn’t that well delivered over the phone he reasons. He swallows hard and listens to Kid keep talking. “I’ll pick you up at noon alright? Just be ready-”

“Yeah.”, Law says trying to keep his composure. “This is all mysterious I must admit. Should I be worried?”

“Maybe you should.”, Kid says with a snort. Law wishes he could see his face, because this was all confusing him. “Or maybe you might be pleasantly surprised.”

“Well I better be if I’m choosing to spend my Sunday with you Eustass-ya.”, Law says and he can feel Kid roll his eyes.

“Yeah yeah, see you tomorrow asshole.”, Kid says and finally hangs up. Law stares down at his phone. Just what the hell was that? That couldn’t have been Kid asking him on a date. This must have all been a joke.

“Wow- Speak of the devil.”, Corazon says as he finishes his ice cream. Law’s is melting in his hand and he grudgingly licks some of the sweet sludge so it doesn’t get on his coat sleeve.

“I thought you were on his team just a minute ago?”, Law says with a smirk. 

“Not really! He still is a troublemaker after all-”, Corazon says and Law rolls his eyes.

“Well nothing is going on so you have nothing to worry about Cora-ya.”, Law says calmly. He looks around for a trash can to throw the rest of the cone he doesn’t want to finish in. “But, I am going to be out tomorrow.”

“If he shows up at the door I’m going to kick his ass.”, Corazon says and Law rolls his eyes.

“I’ll tell him to wait in the car then.”, He says as he tosses the cone away.

* * *

Kid stares at the phone in his hand. What the fuck was that? Did Law tell it was a date, or did he think he was joking? Maybe he should have clarified it there on the phone, but it was all too easy to sink into their familiar pattern of dancing around the subject at hand. Just great. If he gets friendzoned after planning all this he was going to kick Killer’s ass.

He looks down at the tickets in his hand. In the city there was this museum of surgical sciences. It seemed right up Law’s alley. Kid had never really been in the museum, he never really had a reason to. To be honest, he wasn’t really sure what was in the place. He thinks it just has stuff pertaining to the history of medicine and shit, but if it had any live surgery shit he knew he would have to leave and drag Law out behind him. He was not about to watch any of that. He didn’t like to admit it to Law to give him ammo, but the thought of someone poking around at his insides creeped him the hell out.

Despite the fact the place sounded creepy, he couldn’t help but smile a bit. He doesn’t remember the last time he’s hung out with Law alone outside of school. Probably at some party maybe. But this was different. This was Kid specifically asking Law to go somewhere with him. This was going to be a date. Kid feels his heart beat at the thought and he puts a hand over his face. He better not screw this up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is gonna be the datee. Might be the last chapter!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kid and Law go on a date

Law waits impatiently on the couch with a book he's not really concentrated on in his hand as he tries his best not to look at the time again for the third time in the past two minutes. It was getting close to noon, and Kid said he'd give him a text when he was outside, knowing well enough to wait for Law in the car than to knock on the door and have it opened up by his dad. Corazon was not hiding the fact that he was occasionally looking outside the window, probably trying to seek out the redhead. Law rolls his eyes as he sees his dad doing that just now. He reads over a sentence in his book but can't concentrate on the meaning of the words. Reading suddenly is a lot harder when you have someone on your mind.

His phone suddenly buzzes at the same time he hears Corazon gasp and Law marks his page in his book and gets up. He already knows what that means.

"I'll see you later Cora-ya.", Law says and Corazon smiles.

"Alright alright I'll let you and the brat be. If he does anything just call me and I'll go kick his ass-", Corazon waves and Law snorts.

"You say it as if I can't kick his ass myself.", Law says and Corazon laughs.

"Oh- I know you can, but if he did anything I would also have to kick his ass too.", Corazon says and Law snorts and waves as he leaves the door. They both know Kid wouldn't do anything really.

Law suddenly feels a shred of nervousness as he leaves the door. He just put on his yellow hoodie today, not feeling like wearing the bulky coat for once much to his surprise. He suddenly wonders if maybe that was a bad idea. Was it too casual? He had no idea where the hell they were going so it might be. But he couldn't just stand there like an idiot, or go inside and change so he smiles a bit and walks over to the car.

"Eustass-ya.", Law greets as he gets in the passenger seat of the car. He wonders how he convinced Killer to drive his junkheap of the car. Law looks around. To his surprise it actually looked picked up a bit. Usually there were take out cups and containers littered on the floor and in the cupholders, but they were all gone.

"Trafalgar.", Kid says back. Law's relieved to see him in one of his usual black shirts with his trademark dark red coat over him.

"So are you going to finally stop being mysterious? I'm on the edge of my seat.", Law tries to say dryly but he'd be lying if he said the mystery if wherever the other was taking him wasn't in his mind since that call yesterday.

"Well I was going to tell you right now, but since you're being a little bitch-", Kid says with a grin and Law rolls his eyes.

"This may just be classified under kidnapping Eustass-ya.", Law says and Kid snorts.

"Well I don't see you protesting-", Kid points out and Law hums.

"Maybe so.", He says. "At least for now."

He looks out the window. Kid is driving towards the area of the city where tourists usually flock to. It was the area where all the museums and other attractions were at. Law blinks. What could possibly be here that Kid was interested in?

"Alright- Here comes the place.", Kid says and Law can't help the confused look on his face when Kid pulls into a parking lot. He recognizes where they are. The museum of surgical sciences. Corazon took him a here a few times but that was years ago. 

"What? Why are we here?", Law asks and Kid's face falls.

"What? You don't like this place? It seemed right up your alley-", Kid says.

"Well- Yeah I like this place..but why are we here? You've said countless times how this stuff creeps you out..", Law says and Kid's grin comes back to his face.

"God- Maybe we are idiots like they all say.", Kid says and Law is about to ask what he means by that but Kid hands him an admissions ticket and says, "We're here because you'd like it. Now come on, let's go check this freak show of a place out-"

Kid gets out of the car and Law looks at the ticket in his hand as he processes the words. Kid took him here..because Law would like it? This must be some sort of joke. The words Kid said yesterday about it being a date come back in his mind and his heart hammers at the possibility that he wasn't joking at all.

"Oi Trafalgar, you ok in there?", Kid asks and Law nods. No, he was thinking too much about this. There was some type of joke Kid was playing on him here and he'd figure it out. He gets out of the car and catches up with the other. That still didn't mean he couldn't enjoy the day though.

The two of them walk inside, handing their tickets to the person up front before they head inside. Law takes one of the maps and Kid rolls his eyes but doesn't say anything about it. 

"Well since you really wanted to come here Eustass-ya, I'll show you the best parts.", Law says as he reads over the map and recalls where everything is. 

"Oh great, can't wait.", Kid groans and Law can't help but smile. He still is waiting for the big gotcha moment Kid is bound to pull on him, so he might as well get some enjoyment from whatever it is. He takes Kid along the museum showing him his favorite parts.

"This is fucking gross-", Kid says as they look at some old medical photos on the wall. "Seriously, doctors have to be sick to do this for a living."

"I guess so.", Law says with a smile. He was quite enjoying Kid's reactions to everything. His reactions were especially funny when they came across a replica of an old surgical tool and Law explained in great detail how they would use it. It was still a mystery why Kid was tolerating all of this.

"I don't know how we're supposed to stomach lunch after all this-", Kid says and Law frowns.

"What do you mean by that?", He asks and Kid looks over at him.

"Oh- There's this place nearby that serves grilled fish. Your favorite right? We could go.", Kid says with a shrug. Law doesn't ever remember telling Kid that was his favorite.

"How did you know that?..", Law asks.

"What?- Oh, I think your dad mentioned it or something when I went over.", Kid says. He looks away. Was he..embarrassed?

Law feels dumbfounded. 

"So..You took me to this place I like, and are now going to take me to eat my favorite food..", Law says. "What's going on? Are you dying?"

"Look Law- I meant what I said. This isa date.", Kid says and Law blinks. It feels like all his limbs were suddenly turning into jelly. He swallows and pulls the front of his hat down.

"If this is some joke-", He says and Kid rolls his eyes.

"You think I'd go to this creepy place as a joke?- Hell no. I've been trying to make it obvious but guess I have to spell it out..", Kid says. He rubs the back of his neck. "You're an idiot Trafalgar Law- You annoy the hell out of me sometimes and get under my skin but- I like you. Somehow."

"You like me.", Law repeats. 

"Yeah..Is that all you have to say?", Kid huffs. Law manages to make himself look up at him. Kid was fucking blushing a bit. And god damn it. Now he was too.

"No- Eustass-ya..I may have liked you for a while now too. Unfortunately.", Law admits. His stomach is doing flips. "So this is- Are we?.."

"Yeah- Let's date or something." Kid says. He has a grin on his face. "Everyone's going to lose their shit-"

"Yeah..You have no idea how long Penguin and Shachi have been wanting this.", Law says. His mind is still reeling in the fact that Kid likes him back. And now they were dating. Oh fuck.

"Yeah- I know perfectly well.", Kid says with a snort. "They gave me the fucking you hurt him and we'll kill you talk- Twice. Once in middle school and another time in sophomore year-"

"Oh my god..", Law says as he pulls his hat down. He makes a mental reminder to kill them later. "So..We're dating. You're my boyfriend."

"Yeah- That's the gist of it.", Kid says with a snort. He coughs. "Look Law- You can say no but, do you want to kiss?"

"You really want our first kiss to be here? In front of the pictures you just called disgusting five minutes ago?", Law says with a smile and Kid rolls his eyes.

"Yes- Don't fucking remind me. Not like I'll be looking at anything but you anyways. So do you want to or not?", Kid asks again and Law tries not to smile like an idiot from how happy he felt.

"Yeah..Let's do that.", Law says and Kid grins and puts a hand on his face, tilting up his chin gently and leaning down and kissing him.

Law melts into the touch, feeling like he might just fall over. How could something so small and simple make him feel like electricity was running through him? He reaches out and grabs Kid's coat without thinking and holds it tight in his hands as he closes his eyes and kisses the other back. He never wants it to end. He may have entertained thoughts about kissing Kid in the past. Of course he had always squashed the thoughts not long after they popped up. But now, he was actually doing it, and it was better than he had ever imagined. Law never kissed anyone before, so he guesses he must have been clumsy and not too good with it, but Kid didn't seem to mind so he didn't either.

When they pull apart Law keeps his hand where they are on the coat and catches his breath. It was just a small five second kiss but, it made him feel like all his breath was taken out of his lungs. Kid is looking at him with wide eyes and Law almost leans up and kisses him again but manages to restrain himself. Kid breaks out into a grin.

"Not too bad Trafalgar.", Kid says. Law feels his face heating up. Why was he reacting like this? He always managed to stay cool despite everything Kid threw at him. But this was different.

"I could say the same about yourself Eustass-ya.", Law manages to say back with a smirk. Kid snorts.

"Come on, I'm hungry- And any more time in this place and I'll lose my appetite.", Kid says. Law laughs a bit.

"Are you sure? We didn't even go into the exhibit about the human heart- They have some interesting videos there.", Law says and as expected Kid makes a disgusted face.

"Yeah- We're leaving now-", Kid says and Law's smug smile drops when Kid takes his hand. He opens his mouth to say something but Kid is already starting to drag him towards the exit.

"Eustass-ya", He says. He should be annoyed that Kid is dragging them along but he looks down at his hand in Kid's and can't help the warm feeling he gets in his chest. He silently holds Kid's hand back and Kid looks at him for a second before his grin spreads.

The two of them head out and stop at the place Kid mentioned, sitting across from each other. As Kid had mentioned, they had grilled fish on the menu. Law barely notices how uneasy eating in public made him feel as Law and Kid talked about nothing in particular. Kid doesn't mention it when Law decides he's done eating half way through the dish. Law felt himself smiling.

* * *

"Are you sure I'm allowed here?", Kid asked for the third time on their walk there. They were approaching the steps to Law's apartment and Kid looked like he was about to be eaten by a shark. Law rolls his eyes but can't help but smile at his boyfriend. They have been dating for a month now, and Law had insisted Kid come over and stay for dinner. Maybe it was all because he wanted to make out with the redhead on his bed, but he wouldn't tell Kid that.

"Your dad still hates me.". Kid says like it's a fact. "He's going to gut me."

"No he won't, I won't let him.". Law says with an amused smile. "Well, I'll try at least."

"Haha very funny. You're not the one about to die-", Kid says dramatically. Law rolls his eyes.

"Just trust me Eustass-ya. He won't kill you. I think he may approve of you actually..Well as much as he can.", Law admits. He smiles a bit. As annoying as it could be with how protective Corazon is, he did appreciate that his dad cared. Not to mention it was funny how Kid was scared of him. Kid was tall, a giant, but his father was even taller, which was probably a reason for the redhead's uneasiness towards him besides his serious demeanor with Kid.

"I doubt that. If he skins me alive I'm blaming you.", Kid says and Law smiles.

"You're being dramatic.", Law says. As amusing as it was to see Kid unsettled, he didn’t really want Kid to be worrying too much. He hoped he and Corazon would get along better this time. “We’ll mostly be in my room anyways.”

“Oh will we now?”, Kid says with a grin and Law rolls his eyes.

“If you think we’re doing anything like that while my dad is home you’re more of an idiot than I thought.”, Law says and Kid snorts.

“I wouldn’t try unless I really had a death wish.”, Kid admits. They’re in front of the door now. Law feels Kid hold his hand a little tighter and he can’t help but smile a bit. He knocks on the door, not bothering to use his keys since Corazon was no doubt waiting close by.

After a mere three seconds, Corazon opens the door. There’s a big smile on his face, but Kid and Law both see the underlying danger in his eyes that’s directed right at Kid.

“You guys are finally here- Welcome back Kid.”, Corazon greets.

“Oh- Yeah thanks..”, Kid says unsure. Law rolls his eyes.

“We’re going to go to my room Cora-ya.”, Law says as he pulls Kid inside.

“Alright, I’ll come get you when dinner’s ready.”, He says with a smile and watches the two go to Law’s room. Law sighs once they’re inside and closes the door. He looks over at his boyfriend and smiles.

“See? Nothing happened.”, Law says and Kid scoffs.

“Nothing yet Trafalgar- Did you not feel the atmosphere in there? He’s planning a murder.”, Kid says as he collapses on top of Law’s bed. He picks up the stuffed polar bear next to his head and snorts. “Hey what’s with this thing anyways? Isn’t this what we fought about?”

“We fought because you stole Bepo from me.”, Law says as he snatches the stuffed bear from Kid’s hands and lays next to him. Kid wraps an arm around Law and Law can’t help the smile grow on his face despite his annoyed words.

“Bepo? Oh god you named that thing?”, Kid asks with a groan and Law rolls his eyes.

“Well of course I did. If you want to stay in this relationship you have to respect my friends you know.”, Law says as half a joke and Kid snorts.

“Fine fine- How do you do stuffed asshole.”, Kid says as he grabs Bepo’s arm and shakes it up and down. Law snorts.

“If you hate him so much then why did you try and steal him?”, Law asks.

“What? Oh- I don’t know..It wasn’t so much that I wanted it. You would always carry the thing around..”, Kid says as he looks away and Law feels a growing smirk on his face.

“So you stole him because it was important to me?”, Law asks cheekily and Kid rolls his eyes.

“Whatever, that bullshit is over with anyways. Besides-”, He says as he pulls Law closer. “I think I have something much better than a stuffed bear now.”

Law can’t help but laugh a bit. He’s about to inquire what exactly Kid was talking about but the redhead leans in and connects his lips to Law’s and Law hums and kisses the other back. What an asshole. Law knows he was only doing it to drop the topic. The topic of Kid probably being an asshole to Law as a kid because of an overlooked crush. It was an annoying thought to Law. That the reason their whole feud was a thing was because they were both bad at handling emotions. It irked him even more that he could have been doing this much earlier in the first place; kissing Kid.

Law feels a hand knock over his hat and run through his hair. They pull apart and Law pouts a bit despite how nice that kiss admittedly felt.

“You can’t just throw my hat over.”, Law says as he looks and sees his hat sitting on the floor next to the bed. Kid just grins.

“It was just an accident.”, He says innocently as he keeps playing with Law’s hair. He doesn’t want to admit it, but he likes the feeling of Kid’s fingers in his hair. He not so subtly leans into his hand without thinking.

“Well then go pick it up.”, Law says and Kid snorts.

“Later- You don’t need it right now anyways. Your hair is really soft, you know.”, Kid says as he keeps messing with the dark locks. Law rolls his eyes.

“Thanks. I shower.”, Law says bluntly.

“Hey, don’t say it like I don’t asshole!”, Kid says. Law smirks and is about to make a comment back before they hear the door open. He sits up, but not before Corazon already saw them both lying together really close on the bed.

“I was just going to tell you two dinner’s almost ready.”, Corazon says. His smile is twitching, and Kid looks horrified next to him. Law rolls his eyes. They weren’t even doing anything, but he knows saying that won’t calm his father down.

“We’ll be there Cora-ya.”, Law says and they watch as the man leaves, keeping the door open behind him.

“He’s going to kill me-”, Kid says and Law rolls his eyes.

“Oh hush.”, Law says as he leans up and kisses his boyfriend again. Kid kisses back, putting a hand on Law’s hip, and when they pull apart the two head to the kitchen.

* * *

Kid watched as Law helped Corazon set up the table for dinner. Kid had even offered to help, both wanting to get into Corazon’s good graces as well as not sit there awkwardly, but his boyfriend had told him to just sit down. After a bit, Law places a plate in front of Kid. It’s onigiri. Kid had learned this was another one of Law’s favorite foods a while ago. Law sits next to Kid with his own plate.

“It looks great Corazon.”, Law says and Corazon grins.

“Thanks- It’s not too difficult to make.”, He says as he sits down with them. Law is about to say something, but they all grow quiet at the sound of the home phone ringing. Kid holds back a comment about how he didn’t know phones like that were still around, but Law stands up.

“I’ll answer it.”, He says as he leaves the room. Kid gives him a pleading look. Is the asshole really going to leave his boyfriend alone with Corazon? Law must not notice the look, or give a shit, because he leaves the room. Corazon watches after him and frowns a bit.

“I only give people I don’t like that number y'know.”, Corazon says as he pours some lemonade in the cups. He hands Kid one and Kid takes it. “I bet I know who it is. I shouldn’t have let Law answer it..”

“Oh.”, Kid says as he takes a sip from the cup. “Who is it?”

“My brother. He calls sometimes.”, Corazon says. Kid frowns. He had heard snippets about Doflamingo before. Kid had asked Law if his father was related to the public figure since they had the same family name, and Law had hesitantly admitted he was right.

“We don’t really talk to him anymore. Or we try not to..”, Law had told Kid. “He used to have custody of me before Cora-ya came back from the army..”

Kid could tell back down it was a touchy subject, and with the look on Corazon’s face now he guessed he was right about that. He tries to think of something to say, but Corazon suddenly smiles.

“So. Law told me about you two.”, Corazon states the obvious. Kid swallows. 

“Yeah..Uh, we’re dating.”, Kid says and immediately recognizes how lame that sounded.

“Well- I don’t think I need to tell you but..if you hurt my son, I’ll make you regret it Kid.”, Corazon says. His face is serious. “Law has had to deal with a lot..Just make him happy ok?”

“Yeah.”, Kid says. “I wouldn’t hurt him anyways.”

“I think I know.”, Corazon admits to Kid’s surprise. The blonde smiles a bit. “What you did back at the park. It was because you were worried about Law. I knew you two would talk a lot, but..I didn’t think you cared that much about him.”

Kid feels his face heat up from embarrassment. God damn it. He thinks back to that day. At the time he thought maybe he was doing the wrong thing, but seeing Law look a lot healthier and happier now made those doubts go away. Kid knew it was far from easy, but Law was keeping up with his therapy and appointments, and whenever he was around Kid during mealtimes he would actually eat. The way Law was on that bathroom floor still very much haunted Kid, but it seemed so far away now.

“Well yeah..I couldn’t let him go on like that.”, Kid says with a shrug.

“Well- Thanks Kid.”, Corazon says and Kid blinks. He didn’t think he should be thanked for doing what he did. All he did was pass the information on when he realized he couldn’t do anything to help. He didn’t want to be thanked for that. But hearing it from Corazon, who he always thought hated his guts, made him not turn it down.

They hear footsteps and Corazon looks at the doorway and sees Law come in. He has a small frown on his face, and Kid wants to ask what the phone call was about, but Law shakes his head.

“Just a stupid telemarketer.”, Law says with a shrug as he sits down. They all know that’s not the truth, but Kid guesses it was something the two wanted to talk about in private so he doesn’t say anything. Millionaire or not, if that Doflamingo guy messed with Law he wouldn’t hesitate to kick his ass. With Law by his side of course.

“Oh, what a bad time to call.”, Corazon says. He starts eating now that Law sat down with them, and Kid watches Law pick up one of the onigiri and take a bite from one and smiles a bit. It was nice seeing the man eat. He tries not to stare and takes a bit out of his food too. He couldn’t deny it was pretty good

* * *

Law eats. It was weird to think about honestly. That he was simply eating without feeling disgusted or sick about it. Just a month ago he would have gagged at how much he’s already eaten, even if this was one of his favorite foods, and he was surrounded by people he loved. It all seemed stupid to him now, but he tries to steer away calling it that. When he had told his therapist they had shook their head and told Law what he had been feeling and his thoughts about food at the time weren’t stupid. It was a serious mental illness.

Law still went to therapy and had to visit the dietitian, but not as much as before since he’s been steadily improving. Law had even asked if he could stop his treatment altogether but they urged him to go in a little bit longer. Law knew why. It was extremely common for people with eating disorders to relapse and go into bad habits again. He doesn’t want to think about that. Right now he was eating his favorite food with his favorite people.

One of his least favorite people had been on the phone earlier. Doflamingo had sounded happy when he heard Law’s voice ask who it was on the other side of the phone. He had said how much he missed Law and Corazon and how they should visit him soon. He kept calling Law his son, and Law had to bite his tongue to not go off on him. He didn’t feel like arguing with the bird brained man. It was bad enough he had left Kid and Corazon in the room together. So he made some half assed excuse about them being busy lately. It probably sounded even worse than the last excuse they had given him. If Corazon was not so uneasy about cutting ties with his brother even though he wanted to, Law would curse him out for bothering them all the time. But he just swiftly hung up before Doflamingo could ask more about how they were doing and went back into the room.

He looks over at Kid. He looks more relaxed than when he first got there, and he wonders if something had happened between the two while he was on the phone, but he thinks he’ll ask later. Kid notices him looking and smiles a bit and Law gives him a questioning look. Why was he looking at him like that?

“Law-”, Corazon says. “You have lipstick all over your mouth.”

Law feels his face heat up immediately and Kid is snickering next to him, not even trying to hold back his laughter. Law’s eye twitches. He guesses he should have thought about Kid’s lipstick getting on him after they had made out so much. Law has had to carry around wipes at school to get the lipstick marks off of his face. Kid seemed to enjoy doing it way too much.

“Oh.”, Law says as he wipes his face with a napkin. “Wonder how that got there.”

He stomps the heel of his shoe onto Kid’s foot and Kid makes a strangled surprised noise and stops laughing. Law rolls his eyes, but can’t help but smile too.

Yeah, maybe he was a mess sometimes, but he had a great dad, a great boyfriend, and great friends. He was going to go to med school, and most recently of all he was starting to eat and see himself as a normal person. Yeah, he had everything covered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ngl, kinda rushed through this last chapter but it was fun to make! Thank you so much for all the nice comments and for the people who've read this far! 8,) If y'all want to talk or see some of my one piece art my insta is https://www.instagram.com/simmering_sun/
> 
> And lastly, please please please, if you read this and you have an eating disorder, please talk to someone about it. I know it's hard but you can't keep it to yourself, and recovery IS possible despite how bad things seem. Ily <3


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